Smart Cops
April 30, 2025
By NZB3
Might
be an idea to put two news headlines about the New Zealand Police together. One from today, the other from yesterday.
“Police have been warned that shifting their information to the cloud could have “severe detrimental impacts” if they are not careful. The shift to Microsoft cloud services has started in Wellington…. Microsoft and Spark will run the new system for police, and that this was another point of risk. One risk was that a foreign government or law enforcement agency could ask Microsoft for New Zealand police data. The US has a Cloud Act that allows for this to happen,..”
So that’s a concern. We all know how great the government is at keeping our private information safe. Totally useless!
Off the back of that comes today’s Newstalk ZB…
“Police are trialing new technologies to expand their capabilities, including a tool that lets them access data from wearable devices like smartwatches. Mobile edit is being tested by police and is on a 64-page list of capabilities police have or are testing. Four other technologies are also being piloted, including two types of Microsoft AI. Gorilla Technology Chief Executive Paul Spain says “We’ve seen police take a more relaxed approach to new technology in the past, but now they’re putting things through a more formal vetting process, which is appropriate given the confidential data and information police have access to.” – 2am Newstalk ZB hourly news
Turns out that NZ’s technology commentator was reacting to another RNZ Phil Pennington story. Also from yesterday. So perhaps I’m not so clever matching these 2 stories up after all…
“Police are trialling a new high-tech tool designed to extract data from people’s wearable devices, such as smartwatches. The tech, MOBILEdit from Prague-based company Compelson Labs,…Police said the new tool was only used on devices lawfully obtained under a search warrant or by someone consenting.” – Police trial data extraction tech aimed at wearable devices, RNZ
“Our tools extract evidence from smartwatches, mobile phones, and clouds to successfully fight crime” – mobiledit.com
Pennington goes on to show that the Police have long been importing foreign software to spy on the public. This includes facial recognition of social media and scanning private cameras for number plates. And that’s the things we know about thanks to OIA requests.
For once Radio New Zealand (Phil, anyway) is doing a journalistic job by keeping an eye on this.
It is a concern that our police are spying on us in ever more sophisticated ways. The quality of the data is better then ever as we use smart devices that turn our social and biological routines digital and so subject to being taken as “evidence.” And, subject to being lost or misused by government. Things really are heating up.
I remember blogging many years ago about an Australian top cop being mocked because he foresaw a sort of ‘Robocop’ future with cyber crime going mad. He said it was the biggest future threat. I think he lost his job through mockery. Well, who’s laughing now?
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