Source: arstechnica.com 6/13/23
On a Wednesday morning in May, Hannah got a call from her lawyer—there was a warrant out for her husband’s arrest. Her thoughts went straight to her kids. They were going to come home from school and their father would be gone. “It burned me,” Hannah says, her voice breaking. “He hasn’t done anything to get his bond revoked, and they couldn’t prove he had.”
Hannah’s husband is now awaiting trial in jail, in part because of an anti-pornography app called Covenant Eyes. The company explicitly says the app is not meant for use in criminal proceedings, but the probation department in Indiana’s Monroe County has been using it for the past month to surveil not only Hannah’s husband but also the devices of everyone in their family. To protect their privacy, WIRED is not disclosing their surname or the names of individual family members. Hannah agreed to use her nickname.
Prosecutors in Monroe County this spring charged Hannah’s husband with possession of child sexual abuse material—a serious crime that she says he did not commit and to which he pleaded not guilty. Given the nature of the charges, the court ordered that he not have access to any electronic devices as a condition of his pretrial release from jail. To ensure he complied with those terms, the probation department installed Covenant Eyes on Hannah’s phone, as well as those of her two children and her mother-in-law.
In near real time, probation officers are being fed screenshots of everything Hannah’s family views on their devices. From images of YouTube videos watched by her 14-year-old daughter to online underwear purchases made by her 80-year-old mother-in-law, the family’s entire digital life is scrutinized by county authorities. “I’m afraid to even communicate with our lawyer,” Hannah says. “If I mention anything about our case, I’m worried they are going to see it and use it against us.”
When I was on probation I refused to use the app. I knew that would happen. I knew they would watch everything I did. I refused to have family members install that crap. There are so many free services out there, heck, even the refrigerator has service today!!!
Anti-Constitutional is the first thing that popped into my mind. More and more government departments are pushing for over reach and eroding away of our Constitutional rights – therefore we need to keep pushing back.
One nation, under surveillance…
Covenant eyes? This is right outta the handmaid’s tale.
…..she says. “It was the family’s choice to continue living with him.”
Just wow. Not surprising, but wow. Government employee dehumanizing every chance they get.
Remember someone’s watching you and it’s Covenant Eyes along with the government.
GD, government is stupid. This is just asinine.
The chief public defender in that county said, “He agreed that he would not access electronic devices in his household in exchange for release.” Okay, let’s assume that is what he agreed to. Then why are they monitoring electronic devices in his household? He’s not using them. They are monitoring the CHILDREN’S devices?! Because he is using them? His wife’s phone was used to visit pornhub (maybe). So what. He’s not using it. Why would the dumbf*cks think that he was? I’d say the wife was using it.
Just asinine.
But honestly, why would anyone ever agree to doing something like this or trusting government? I’m not letting those scumbags near my family. Especially my naive children. They mess with them and I’ll hurt them. Just like I am today, LOL.
The word, “Covenant” jumps right off the page, here. In other words, a right-wing, Christian fundamentalist, anti-porn project is behind the software and aligned with law enforcement. The founder of the software company, Ron DeHaas, is a minister and the founder of “Nehemiah Ministries” in Michigan. So, the people fighting “porn addiction” on a biblical basis are also deploying their spy software via government agents on people’s devices. Yeah, that sounds about right! What could go wrong?
Their terms of service specifically state that their reports aren’t to be used in criminal proceedings, yet that’s exactly what happened here.
Hannah ought to sue the company that made this software for lawyer fees to defend her husband’s case (you obviously wouldn’t want the public defender they quoted in this story), and all the appeals that will surely follow. For his lost work for the entire time he’s locked up. Then double it all for pain and suffering. Then double that for tort.
This story is particularly chilling.
First, it was a former employee of a high powered surveillance office who wrote the program for others and has had it used by them. That ought to tell the masses here what that office does and can do without anyone knowing.
I have to wonder what EFF would say about this case and if they would help defend the family members here. I did just notify them of it.
Whether the company says the program cannot be used in courts or not is irrelevant because it is not their call. Until it is legally ruled their program cannot be used in courts or the prosecution of people in courts, then they have sold their souls to the devil where it will be used as those who have insisted it be used will use it.
It would be best to have this program shut down and its use discarded while overturning every case it has been associated with for the unconstitutional ways it is operated and has been used.
Again, give away your rights, e.g., sign them over as this family did, it’ll be a long time until they come back, if ever. Never sign anything without reading the fine print or having it reviewed by a credible legal pro before doing so.
I doubt those interested in surveillance are going about it the old fashioned way. You know agents stashed away in a van or apartment with audio bugz and cameras with long range lenses.
Turns out the IRS via SCOUTUS* position has gained some support for “snooping” as covered by Steve Lehto at Youtube.com@lehtoslaw ” Supreme Court grants IRS more powers to snoop.” The IRS is permitted to involve “financial records subpoenas from third party’s transaction records” in cases against customers or associates without their ability to contest.”
*Yea, misspelling intended.
I agree with the public defender, the wife and the mother in-law chose to stay with him, she even handed over her kids devices to law enforcement and had spy software installed on their phones.
The fact that she didn’t stand up for her kids privacy says a lot about this woman, she’s what you call an “enabler” and it make me question if she know about the images on his computer before he was arrested and possibly turned a blind eye.
As far the husband goes this guy is a selfish coward, he got busted and now he’s dragging his whole family through this nightmare, All because he couldn’t man up and face the consequences of his actions, he should’ve moved out and slept in his car or went to a halfway house anything to protect his family’s privacy from law enforcement agencies.
Now he’s back jail, this could’ve all been avoided if he had just moved out and stop using all electronic devices until his trial was over
I’m well acquainted with this issue. I’ve used monitoring software for over 2 years while going through the Wisconsin probationary system. They definitely use Covenant Eyes, but the DOC also offers other monitoring choices; I opted for the cheaper Accountable2you. Monitoring software is a double edge sword. Since everything is done online nowadays, the software allowed me to access my online banking, consumer and information sites, as well as an outlet for social media. If it wasn’t for the monitoring software, I wouldn’t have been able to stay connected with ACSOL. Unfortunately, monitored online use is a condition of parole for nearly all sex offenses, and for some parolees, the courts don’t grant access at all.
However, having monitoring software on your device can wreck havoc and cause red flags. It started with a novel I was writing which had a fair amount of foul language spewed by the characters. So when I uploaded parts of the novel to online editing software, it often flagged my PO who over time, eventually understood what was going on. Certain words from news articles such as ‘suicide and marijuana’ would also send out alerts. Anything with the words ‘sex offender, webcam, online dating’ would send alerts. Those are only a tiny fraction of words that get flagged, and since I’m a news junkie, I was constantly flagged over non-essential words, and my PO discussed it with me during our next meeting. I was just a one person household, so imagine how this would be magnified thru an entire family agreeing to these conditions.
But the WI DOC was not allowed access to everything. I certainly had the choice not to share my email conversations, or things I did offline such as word documents or scanning photos. However, when I started using online Adobe photo shop to edit my photos, that’s when I started getting questions from my PO. Remember, monitoring software won’t record picture content, but it will flag word descriptions. A person could download a photo entitled “girl riding a bicycle’ without being flagged. But the actual content could be a pornographic photo of a girl riding something else…if you know what I mean. So I kind of understood where my PO was coming from. The key thing is to have a working relationship, and open discussion with your PO about all your online interests…especially those pertaining to your career.
That said, I still believe Wisconsin DOC operates a flawed and corrupt ‘sex offender’ parole system. And Wisconsin is a sanctuary to criminal injustice, conservative politics and institutionalized racism—which is the major reason why I left the state for good.