Fugitives Tracked and Found Using Spotify and Netflix
X Marks the Spot(ify)
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| arstechnica.com |
If you're planning on fleeing the border some time in the near future, you might want to go ahead and cancel a few online subscriptions before you do. It might not seem like an obvious measure to take, but if wife and husband child-napping double-act Brittany Nunn and Peter Burr are anything to go by, it's the difference between sweet, sweet freedom and fermenting orange juice under a prison radiator.
After discovering that she might lose custody of her two children (both by different fathers), Colorado resident Nunn decided that the most rational thing to do would be to snatch them and high-tail it out of the country. This set a 7 month police search into action which drafted local law enforcement, state police and even the FBI. That all came to a head recently when, thanks to a search warrant issued to Spotify, they were able to track Nunn and Burr's location.
Obviously Nunn had picked to wrong time to stream the latest Cradle of Filth album (or whatever she's into, I have no idea), because it led police and feds to an IP address in Mexico. Further delving into her Netflix search history and a few other accounts revealed that she had ordered a package to an address in Cabo San Lucas. Using that information, police were able to track the family's movements for months, gradually working with the FBI and Mexican authorities to catch them and bring them back to the US, which is eventually what happened.
The children have since been returned to their respective biological fathers and the couple are presumably either awaiting trial or already serving sentences. If you find the idea of being tracked by streaming accounts unsettling, I wouldn't worry, provided you're not planning on going AWOL any time soon. What this does rather aptly demonstrate is just how easily modern technology can aid a missing person search, as well as how often your location is being tracked without you necessarily knowing about it.
Callum Davies
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
Fugitives Tracked and Found Using Spotify and Netflix
Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, July 15, 2015
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Reviewed by Unknown
on
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Rating:
Unknown
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