If you’re not familiar with the LEGO scandal, the tl;dw is that this YouTuber Reckless Ben (Ben Schneider) has been investigating a stolen set of LEGO worth ~$100-200k (depending on who you ask) and the local police dept and criminal justice system has been colluding with the criminals (all members of the local Mormon church) to get him to STFU. The long version is, very long. You can check his channel for more.
Previously the local police dept managed to get a warrant to raid Ben’s rental home with guns drawn and arrest him, based on what is clearly fabricated evidence. Here they appear to have done it again to get access to his Google account.
The linked video is mirrored on Peertube and timestamped to the relevant section.
Ben does also provide a copy of the subpoena in the video but I cannot vouch for its’ validity, and he has used placeholder evidence before, but that’s neither here nor there.
Anyway, the part that was relevant to this community was that in the course of their investigation they subpoenaed Google, and Google handed over basically his entire life to them. I’m sure this was very useful in their investigation.
I don’t necessarily blame Google here for complying with a subpoena, but the moral of the story is to stop giving Google your data, because everything you say and do can and will be used against you in a court of law, with or without legitimate justification, and the more stuff you give them, the more ammunition you’re providing the prosecutor.
This is also not exclusive to Google. Anything not local, self-hosted or encrypted a la Proton can be subpoenaed and the provider will have to comply. It just so happens that Google probably has more information about literally everyone in the world than any other particular entity.
Thank goodness we’re finally safe, everyone! I feel so incredibly safe I can barely sleep at night — partly from relief, partly from the faint red glow of the dashboard camera evaluating my facial expressions for signs of independent thought. Remember when driving was about getting somewhere? Now the car watches you, the road watches you, the toll booth photographs you, and somewhere an algorithm decides whether your blinker-to-lane-change ratio indicates sufficient loyalty to remain a licensed citizen. And those anti-distraction cameras! You’re no longer trusted to glance at a road sign without the system assuming you’re filming a TikTok. The camera knows. The camera always knows. And the camera, unlike you, never had a stressful Tuesday.
I also adore the financial supervision. Every coffee I buy with my card is lovingly noted and stored in case someone - anyone - someday needs to review my caffeine patterns for national security purposes. Two espressos before 9 AM? Possible instability. Four beers Saturday? Risk factor. Thirteen emergency Toblerones during tax season? Irrefutable character assessment.
My phone tracks my location so faithfully I couldn’t match its dedication if I tried. It knows I went to the pharmacy Thursday. It knows I took the scenic route Friday. It probably knows I stood outside the bakery six minutes deciding whether to treat myself and walked away empty-handed - proving to whichever algorithm monitors such things that I possess both self-discipline and poor decision-making skills simultaneously.
Facial recognition cameras mean I no longer suffer the indignity of walking through a city anonymously like some 2003 peasant. I’m identified, timestamped, and filed - because a free citizen moving through public space unnoticed is clearly a missed opportunity for database enrichment.
But here’s my absolute favorite part. All this magnificent safety infrastructure - every camera, every log, every database, every tracking system - it’s all in the hands of whoever happens to be in government this season. And governments change. Today’s well-meaning bureaucrat administering your data with careful oversight is tomorrow’s populist demagogue who noticed you donated to the wrong cause, attended the wrong protest, and Googled the wrong thing on a Tuesday afternoon. Maybe you were researching a school project. Maybe you were just curious. Doesn’t matter — the search history doesn’t care about context, and neither will they.
And the beauty of the pitch? Nobody ever said “we’d like to watch everything you do forever.” They said “safety”. One word, carrying all the weight, answering all questions, and conveniently foreclosing further discussion. Safety from what? Don’t worry about it. Who controls it? Interesting. Can you influence it? Adorable that you’d ask. The safest person alive is someone in a padded cell under constant supervision. Magnificent safety record. Very low satisfaction. But completely safe - until the warden changes.
This comment is straight up literature. Bravo. Putting it all so succinctly. I hope this gets posted elsewhere too! 👏
For a series of incidents that have gathered international attention, it interesting to see the police and legal system double down on corruption. It like internationally advertising how crooked the cops are and how corrupt the legal system is to everyone. Do you want tourists to never visit? Because that is how you get tourists to not visit.
It’s the way it has always been. They just don’t fear repercussions anymore.
most people are sadly not paying attention
Most people are still ‘nothing to hide nothing to fear’ and I know some people close to me that insist that ICE and Trump are only going after the worst of the worst.
the people who understand what’s going on have figured out that what the regime means is “brown people are, as a group, the worst of the worst.” the people who don’t understand that are more vulnerable to believe that the face value is the truth
Except some of the people who told me that and still hang onto it are brown themselves. That is what makes their naivety more frightening.
Even seeing some people who could very well be undocumented immigrants themselves joining ICE such as the agent in a clip I saw of an ICE agent with a thick Mexican accent acting like he spotted a foreigner and was going to detain him based on his accent… when the guy makes Speedy Gonzalez sound mild, only makes this worse.
The Epstein oligarchy’s propaganda game has become so pervasive and self-reinforcing that it makes many brown people believe that the anglosphere’s unspoken understanding about brown people doesn’t apply to them and it makes them genuinely believe that they are part of the dominant group.
Worse yet: the Epsteins understand optics better than the liberals and it’s made those brown people the most powerful tool in their toolbox in all western liberal democracies – especially so for the white passing ones.
At this stage, It’s gotten so bad that it’s become safe to assume that white passing brown people are maga.
“First they came for everybody who wasn’t me, but they weren’t me, so I didn’t care and even helped them do it…then they came for me.”
Never let yourself become dependent on something a company has control of, if at all possible. They will use it as leverage to coerce concessions from you that drive you further toward controlling nothing at all.
We could all use a “Live without technology” day where everyone lives intentionally without using technology owned by others, learn first hand where those liabilities and leverage are in our lives, the cost of loss of access, and the alternatives. We are far more likely to accept enshitification of everything if a loss of access suddenly causes a crisis we’ve never encountered before. Awareness is a strength that would be wise to cultivate. If you can’t go one day without tech, you’re already told dependent and tbh, a threat to the community and people around you.
Am I wrong or is $100k not even money enough for how big this scandal has been?
Expect it to become more common.
If someone out there still thought the cops was the good guys, this is mainstream enough that its going to open some eyes to the belief that all cops are bad cops.
We’ve been saying how corrupt police are and how they are like a gang that sticks up for themselves first and foremost. Now the youth get to experience that second hand in a way that the public can’t confuse them about race issues or make it about issues anything other than what it is.
I know its stupid for reckless Ben to not use a lawyer but this way we get to see straight up every avenue they use to try to abuse their power.
What was the value of the Lego collection in this scandal? 200k? It’s wild just how far people are willing to go over what’s ultimately not even enough money to retire off of, and only a couple of years’ living expenses in some cities
Sounds like they’ve been successfully getting away with this sort of thing for a long time. So in the long run, probably way more money.
IIRC The Civil Rights Lawyer from Audit the Audit is helping him out. Shit is fucked if it has his attention. Hope it turns out ok.
Just as an fyi, if you’d self hosted your services, they would probably subpoena you, and you would be obligated to give them all your data from your own server, and if you’d refus, your be in deep, deep shit
It doesn’t matter where you store data, if it’s stored, it can be used
“Sorry I’m a complete amateur. I don’t even have an A+ cert. I ran a Docker update and it corrupted EVERYTHING and I lost the encryption key to my offsite because I’m such an idiot I’m so sorry.”
And that’s where good encryption comes into play. At least in the US, (where this case is happening), they can compel you to turn over the encrypted data blob. But they can’t compel you to give them the password to access the data. Because forcing you to give up the password would violate your 5th amendment right to remain silent.
Also, they probably wouldn’t subpoena you and give you a chance to respond; they would just bust your front door down and take your server. You wouldn’t have an opportunity to peacefully turn the data over to them. Only the wealthy get subpoenas. The rest of us get no-knock search warrants, dead pets, (because cops will shoot any dogs that are present when they execute the warrant), and traumatized/injured/killed family members who happened to be home at the time.
they respected the lemon pound cake tho…
That incident reminded me of Kevin Mitnick leaving a box of donuts for the FBI lol.
“Well boys I sure hope you can get in to this because I lost the password ages ago I remember it was a set of 15 random words with capitals in random spots but just can’t remember the order…”
Then your lawyer gets to tell the jury that you complied.
How so? You cannot be forced to accuse yourself. If your self-hosted data is on encrypted hard drives then they can’t do anything about it.
Except in the UK where you can be forced to provide decryption keys.
Lol UK making use of the Wrench Law
There are plenty of examples of people who have been jailed for years for not providing the encryption key.
In the united states, they’re jailed for contempt of court for non-compliance w providing the password
If your self-hosted data is on encrypted hard drives then they can’t do anything about it.
They’re trying to “fix” that alright. Reminder to those in the US to call your reps and take action before it’s too late. There’s a whole slew of these things trying to pass.
You’re half right, in that ultimately they can compel you to hand over your data, but there is a higher bar to clear for them to get your personal data stored locally.
For one, they can’t compel you to turn over your data with a subpoena, they’d have to actually go in front of a judge and get a warrant.
Probably wouldn’t be very hard to get from what i can see in this case
It would at least be harder, and have real constitutional ramifications. But yes, ultimately if there’s enough corruption they will get their hands on the data
It would at least be harder, and have real constitutional ramifications.
Not really that much harder. From Harvard Law Review
We found that 93.56% of warrant affidavits areapproved on their initial submission, and only 6.44% are denied (ignoring those submissions that are withdrawn before a decision is made). And once we account for the ability to resubmit affidavits, the eventual approval rate reaches 98.14%.
I imagine it’d still be preferable to make them go through you and your lawyer for that info, where you could still have some measure of control.
I think the real takeaway is to not put all your eggs in one basket, so they would need separate subpoenas.
Getting access to just his Google Account could contain Google Voice text messages, voicemails, and call history. Google search history, Google Maps location history, everything in Google Docs, Gmail, YouTube, and probably other stuff I’m forgetting. That’s all with a single subpoena, which includes a lot of things irrelevant to the case.
Google doesn’t store map data anymore. It is all local.
That’s just map data. Your travel/location data is still stored acvount-side unless you disable history in acct settings.
Edit: 2 settings, “Timeline” and “Maps History”.
Timeline is a “feature” that tracks where you’ve been.
They’ll just come in and take ALL your PC/server hardware and hold it as evidence. Preferably with a warrant, but if they “fear” that you may destroy evidence, they can seize everything regardless of warrant. If you’re legally ordered to decrypt and refuse to do so, you’ll be held in contempt of court and probably jailed/fined for who knows how long.
You didn’t refuse. You forgot the passphrase.
It’s worth remembering the law is not rigid, it is flexible and only feigns rigidity to protect capital and the wealthy. If you tried this the judge will assume you’re lying and hold you in contempt.
UK yes, USA no
That’s not correct
The lesson here is not to trust Google or other non-encrypted storage with your stuff. There are email providers that are more protective of your stuff, but more than that: don’t store everything in one place. That way if one account is compromised, not everything is exposed. And American companies are more likely to share your data than European ones.
Yes I did say that but thank you for reiterating.
It’s good to have reminders of what is and isn’t private.
Google accounts aren’t “free”.
it would seem their whole legal system is as corrupt as their government
I live here, and yes, it’s corrupt.
It has been for at least 50 years, now most of all. It’s not as blatant as some countries re open bribery, but our “news” sources have been owned by the bourgeoisie since at least the 90s, every year they bought up more and more smaller, local news sources; now only a few remain, all firmly under control.
Abuses of power are rampant, just not reported often. So we have more room for Kanye coverage, two-page spread
Don’t sell America so short, it’s been corrupt for a lot longer than 50 years. It’s just that more than 50 years ago the victims of corruption didn’t include white families.
wouldn’t you like to become Canada’s 4th territory?
I’ve been following this and he keeps making so many mistakes. Stop talking to the police, bro. Stop trying to get the shop owner on camera.
File lawsuits against the company (I know he tried and the cop refused to issue the summons illegally, so you do it again after filing a complaint against the police), and file every lawsuit possible outside of that district.
But that’s not good views for YouTube. He just keeps giving them more ammunition to go after him.
i guess he lives up to the name Reckless Ben huh lol
I genuinely think this guy was born without fear. Like it simply doesn’t function in his brain. The more into his past you dig, the more you realize that him calling himself Reckless Ben is not a joke. We are all lucky that he is using his fearlessness for good. To him, this entire thing is just an interesting experience or however he phrased it. I can’t help, but admire him.
How did we not see this!?
Lawsuits do no good when they are invisible. He’s exposed insane police and judge corruption that would be swept under the rug becuase of no exposure. If utah decides they dont like you or me, we would be fucked, in jail for made up lies, becuase we dont have millions of people watching.
Yes he has also done some dumb shit for sure.
After he got forcibly muted by court I believe he finally spoke to lawyers and then he won pretty quick.
I suspect he was playing 4D chess, and decided to show what your chances are in the system if you play it by the book and alone, which most people who can’t afford a lawyer would do, and what also the thieves relied on. They told the victim directly try to sue us and you’ll end up paying more in lawyer costs.
In the above video, his decision to attend a protest wearing a beard is beyond dubious. I sure hope he had several independent lawyers weigh in on exactly what he could say and do that won’t violate the court order, because on the surface that seems like begging the judge to throw him in jail. Even if he technically followed the order, the appearance of it is probably enough for the judge to go nuclear.
Most everything leading up to that I could write off as a combination of telling a good story, boundary testing, and shining a light on how absurdly corrupt our criminal Justice System is in operation, but that beard scene has me concerned that Ben just lost whatever ground he had to stand on.
Sooo sounds like the perfect time for Proton or any mainstream service to sponsor him.
I mean, Proton has a long history of quietly complying with subpoenas
I think Hetzner+Tailscale+Nextcloud might be a better solution
Proton doesn’t have anything to hand over except maybe an ip and billing info. That’s why design matters.
What makes you think a court can’t order them to modify the site/client to capture your key and send it home?
What makes you think a court can’t order them to modify the site/client to capture your key and send it home?
There’s already precedent for this. The FBI leaned on Lavabit to serve compromised code to Edward Snowden. Lavabit closed up shop instead.
Can read more here, which makes the case that “web-based cryptography is always snake oil”: https://www.devever.net/~hl/webcrypto
I’m pretty sure proton has already gone on record stating that if a court ordered them to start keeping logs for a specific account then they have to comply.
Lavabit closed up shop instead.
Surely proton would do the same… /s
You can’t trust a corporation to keep your data secure. They can hide it from your ISP at best.
Crypt your stuff with your own keys and store it in places where you own the client. Convenient security is rarely secure
Hetzner blocks outgoing ports for emails
Not email, storage, nextcloud. If they requested my emails for anything, they’d be horrified how boring they’d be. it’s literally just spam
Yea I watched the video today and it was a good wake up for me to continue my process to move from google. I have started some time ago already but have been doing it in increments. I still have an android phone and moving away from it will be a pain.
GrapheneOS is a dream, if you have a Pixel.
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Aside from 1. Buying second hand, or 2. Waiting until Motorola releases their GrapheneOS phone, then yes. Unfortunately.
Ironically, Pixel is the best hardware to degoogle.
There is the Fairphone with /e/os its great and easily repairable.
fairphones can also run LineageOS if you want to go a step further and remove gapps. for the really bold, you can run postmarketOS on fairphone 4 or 5 to remove android entirely. there are sacrifices in android functionality, but with serious gains by way of Linux desktop to counter those.
It is pretty easy to pick up a second hand phone on eBay
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Sounds like a phobia
Yeah never made sense to me either, its the only device they support. Other options are /e/os and lineage is from my knowledge on other limited device options.
It looks like onnos comments haven’t been populated in the modlog yet so I might be way off on the context but here’s some possibly useful information: the reason graphene is pixel only is because the hardware was originally intended as a reference implementation of an Android handset. It’s incredibly well documented by design and intention with none of the abstracted away components, functions and interfaces that almost everything else is filled with.
Pixels also have relockable bootloaders, which most people don’t care about because for their purposes (installing some custom rom) it only needs to be unlockable, and that means you can generally rely on their security if someone else gets their hands on your phone because the bootloader is locked after installing graphene.
Graphene is a security and privacy focused project.
If all you want is not to have the google apps then graphene isn’t really pointed at you. If you feel it’s more important to have not paid money to a company you don’t trust than it is to be private and secure, graphene isn’t pointed at you. That’s not a judgement, just the reality.
CalyxOS is back too and also supports older hardware than Graphene.
I’m not seeing much of a difference between the two, it’s basically the same list.
Graphene doesn’t support Pixels older than the 6.
Yeah, but updates only until the end of 2026, so no really a good option.
Plus, it’s still mostly a list of Pixel phones.
My exact reasoning to avoid GrapheneOS.
To my understanding you can have a functional phone with LineageOS+ Motorola and a few other brands.
Lots of other brands, Lineage supports hundreds of models.
But not hundreds of mobile modems
What do you mean by that? I assume you don’t mean radio firmware.
Oh, yes, it’s radio, sorry for the brain fart
Given the US is currently rotting from the top down and the bottom up I wonder if this guy will get lucky and find some help from the middle that isn’t yet so corrupt.
He has a civil rights lawyer with a youtube channel helping him on the criminal charges and has hired some other lawyer to help with the civil charges (hence the move for those to federal court). So he’s getting there.
