nanog mailing list archives

RE: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences


From: Sven-Haegar Koch <haegar () sdinet de>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2016 13:09:35 +0200 (CEST)

On Wed, 13 Apr 2016, Nathan Anderson wrote:

What I do get upset hearing about, though, is law enforcement 
agencies using that kind of data in order to execute a warrant.  There 
is nothing actionable there, and yet from the sounds of it, some LEAs 
are getting search warrants or conducting raids on houses where they 
believe they have a solid 1-to-1 mapping of IP address to physical 
address.  Which is absolutely inexcusable.

Just watch any more or less recent CSI / crime TV show.

They have "an IP", enter it into some gizmo, and it spits out the 
address, mostly shown on a nice sat image.

That is so "normal" in TV that for Bully Policeman it just has to exist, 
and the reaction to a webform where you can enter an IP and get an 
address will just be "great, now I also have this" - no further 
thinking to be expected.

And finding a Judge signing off nearly any warrant put in front of them 
is also not new.

c'ya
sven-haegar

-- 
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
- Ben F.


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