Techtonic with Mark Hurst is a weekly radio show from WFMU about technology, how it's affecting us, and what we can do about it.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, author, "Your Data Will Be Used Against You"

Apr 27, 2026

Everything you do online is available to the police with a single warrant. All your emails, search engine queries, social media activity, and sensor data collected by Alexa and Ring and new-model cars - all of it is exposed with a warrant. Andrew Guthrie Ferguson discusses his book "Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance."

Show Notes

Your Data Will Be Used Against You, by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

S.2576 - Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act

On Senate Floor, Wyden Sounds Alarm on ICE Abuses, Renews Calls for Strong Privacy Protections (Jan 28, 2026)

Cellphone-Location Tracking Poses Privacy Test at Supreme Court (gift link, WSJ, Apr 26, 2026): “Zach McCoy hadn’t done anything wrong. But when Google sent him a cryptic, legalistic email in early 2020 notifying him that the police were demanding access to some of his data, he was alarmed.”

Supreme Court Wrangles With Police Use of Cell Location Data to Find Suspects (gift link, NYT, Apr 27, 2026):
Millions of Americans use a Google service known as “location history,” which gathers data roughly every two minutes about where its users travel and when. Unlike traditional warrants, which target an identified suspect based on probable cause that they have committed a crime, geofence warrants operate in reverse. Law enforcement draws a virtual “fence” or boundary around a geographic area where a crime has been committed and asks Google for data on every user whose device happened to be in the area during a particular time.
Don't Talk to the Police (March 20, 2012): “Regent Law Professor James Duane gives viewers startling reasons why they should always exercise their 5th Amendment rights when questioned by government officials.”
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Apr 27, 2026