Cops in [Spain] think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer
97 points by zczc 3 days ago | 65 comments- throwaway74354 3 days agoThere's an opinion that it's part of coordinated campaign, not just slow news day.
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114784469162979608 thread lists same activity in Swedish-speaking parts of the internet.
- netsharc 3 days agoIf they're wearing a Casio F91W, then they're a terrorist AND a drug dealer!
Many years ago: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13194733
- anthk 3 days agoFor Gen-Zers, that's the watch everyone's dad and older millenials used to wear everywhere in the world.
- seabrookmx 2 days ago'90 kid here. I have one on my wrist 90% if the time. Cheap, practical, and if I crash on my MTB or scratch it up while I'm gardening, it's no big deal.
- ls-a 2 days agowe found him
- ls-a 2 days ago
- danillonunes 2 days agoI've seen a lot of young people wearing the silver and gold versions of it. I think there's a vintage trend, just like with the cyber shot cameras, but they're not really full committed to the black rubber ones.
- prmoustache 2 days agomy 11 year old daughter has one too. And she asked for it.
I think that was because of Shakira's song against her ex.
- croisillon 2 days ago
if anything your daughter should wear a Rolex?I'm worth two 22-year-olds You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo You traded in a Rolex for a Casio - 2 days ago
- croisillon 2 days ago
- seabrookmx 2 days ago
- 2 days ago
- Gigachad 2 days agoI have one as part of my Melbourne rave outfit.
- torbid 2 days ago[flagged]
- anthk 3 days ago
- 15155 3 days agoOne random cop makes one ignorant statement and now all "cops in Spain" think something.
- munchler 3 days ago> “Every time we see a Google Pixel, we suspect it might belong to a drug dealer,” said a police official leading the anti-drug operation in Catalonia
Not a random cop, but the leader of an entire operation.
- adolph 2 days agoA less than random cop but still anecdata of one. Maybe an RCT of Spanish police attitudes towards crime-associated tech brands would be more convincing of a thesis broader than “one journalist heard one cop.”
- munchler 2 days agoYou do understand that he speaks for a number of cops at once, not just himself, right?
- munchler 2 days ago
- adolph 2 days ago
- yorwba 2 days agoI think he just made a self-aware observation: noticing a trait being unusually common among criminals he investigates makes him subconsciously associate it with crime even in the general population. Then somebody decided to translate "puede ser" as "must be" and put it in the headline to bait Pixel owners, and now the self-aware cop just looks ignorant instead.
- mistrial9 2 days agothis comment seems to indicate a tip of the iceburg situation in law enforcement-at-scale versus crime-at-scale! human (and tech) evolution demand innovations, yet self-motivated predatory peoples also can be quick to benefit and adapt new tech. lots of quick corollaries available from this..
- mistrial9 2 days ago
- 42lux 3 days agoI've seen news shows at my grandparents that talked about the rage of the masses while quoting three tweets for hours.
- ysofunny 3 days agothe police in spain act like anybody using cloudflare is pirating something, so it kinda checks out
- anthk 3 days agos,police,laliga,g
- prmoustache 2 days agoIsn't it the justice system enforcing La Liga's bullshit? I don't think the police is involved in this.
- elnatro 3 days agoClodFlare does not want to comply with court rulings. Not in Spain, nor in France.
- throw123xz 2 days agoWhich court rulings in Spain Cloudflare doesn't want to comply with?
- throw123xz 2 days ago
- anthk 3 days ago
- devwastaken 3 days agotheir opinion is from their dept reflected in their meetings and street corner conversations. if there were accountability that officer would not feel safe saying that.
- varelse 3 days ago[dead]
- skybrian 2 days agoThe headline is exaggerated to make the cops sound like idiots. If they suspect someone might be a drug dealer (fair - it's a clue), that's very different from thinking they "must" be a drug dealer.
- soraminazuki 2 days agoYour characterization is under-exaggerated to make this problem sound normal. It's not.
> Every time we see a Google Pixel, we suspect it might belong to a drug dealer
Being a Pixel or GrapheneOS user should never be a "clue" of criminality. It should never result in police detaining you or rummaging through your phone. Any police that acts in this way is indeed an "idiot."
- skybrian 2 days agoIt would be if they did that, and maybe they do, but the article doesn't say they do that. You've added your own assumption.
- skybrian 2 days ago
- soraminazuki 2 days ago
- munchler 3 days ago
- Mr-Frog 2 days agoIn other words, drug dealers are privacy-conscious and the Google Pixel is one of the strongest hardware platforms for privacy-aware configurations.
- bapak 2 days ago> GrapheneOS boasts particularly secure and well-executed full disk and metadata encryption, a security feature
So, the default iPhone experience?
- const_cast 2 days agoGrapheneOS goes much, much further than that, providing stronger sandboxes for apps and Google Play Services. GrapheneOS also allows multiple users, isolating things like your filesystem and camera roll from groups of apps.
You can do things like install and update apps in one profile with stronger permissions, and then actually operate the apps in another profile that's locked-down. You can also do things like install apps that require Google Play Services in one profile, but then run them in another with no Google Play Services. In practice, you can have a phone that never phone homes to Google while still running apps that depend on Google Play Services. If you're really savvy, you can even protect your identity from google entirely, using anonymous accounts for the Play Store. You can even get RCS up and running with no Google Services running or Carrier apps running.
As far as I know, you can't turn off phoning home to Apple on iOS. Nor do you know what, exactly, is being phoned home.
- SoftTalker 2 days agoYeah I would have guessed it was more the easy availability of cheap android burner phones than Google Pixel specifically.
- const_cast 2 days ago
- lazide 2 days agoMaybe they can also sideload custom apps that would never pass App Store review?
- bapak 2 days agoBeing in Europe, I think that's not an issue for iOS anymore.
- lazide 2 days agoThey can use alternative AppStore’s now, but that isn’t sideloading. It still is a centralized place to track/attack/control what I can do. Which would be a problem for someone doing something illegal in that same jurisdiction.
Also, if I was doing something illegal, the other controls Apple has over iOS would make me reconsider using it, even with the ‘other AppStores’.
At least if I’m flashing my own OS, and installing things directly and locally, I can think I’m bypassing most factory level spyware and without centralized monitoring. In theory at least.
- lazide 2 days ago
- bapak 2 days ago
- bapak 2 days ago
- subroutine 3 days agoThis "Almost Friday" skit about the Google Pixel is comedy gold...
- zczc 3 days agoThe primary source seems to be https://en.ara.cat/society/technological-warfare-the-drug-tr... (autotranslated from Catalan)
- kace91 3 days agoBoth the translation and the original news are like one paragraph long with 0 context or source.
It’s also quite ridiculous, I’m from Madrid and pixels seem to be the phone of choice for most of my (non tech) friends.
Pixels used to be quite unknown, as most people go for budget Chinese brands, now they’re getting popular. “Get an iPhone-level camera for 300 bucks” is a massive selling point.
- k4rli 3 days agoLatest Pixels are nearly 1k EUR though. Slightly too expensive but still a top pick for me.
- prmoustache 2 days agoLatest highest end model. The "a" model are more in the 550€ area and still have super decent camera, especially if you aren't a selphie addict.
Being the models with the longest firmware support, it is not uncommon for people to buy them second hand at around 300€. I bought my Pixel 6a last year for around 200€.
- prmoustache 2 days ago
- k4rli 3 days ago
- elnatro 3 days agoAra is a pro-secessionist diary so take their news about the national police in Spain with a pinch of salt.
- kace91 3 days ago
- metalman 2 days agoThe police in Spain can thank there lucky stars that they are not dealing with the drug gangs in Mexico and South America, where they are flying militerised drones, and are trying to build narco drone subs with starlink
https://maritime-executive.com/article/colombian-navy-captur...
- lupusreal 2 days agoThey have been, at least a little. They've captured narco subs crossing the Atlantic, including to Spain specifically. The cartels must have trusted associates in Europe to receive these shipments, and that probably means violent enforcers of the cartels in Europe. With unmanned narco subs making longer voyages simpler, this is likely to become an even bigger problem.
- tiagod 2 days agoThey've actually caught one of those subs being built in Spain! https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/span...
- tiagod 2 days ago
- pier25 2 days agoSpain is one of the biggest gateways of drugs into Europe (if not the biggest one). They've been dealing with LATAM mafia for decades.
- anthk 2 days agoThey tried, but the Europeans Mafias know that if the violence hits the fan and craps out civilians (non-gang related members), these would be crushed down in miliseconds.
The CNI is no joke and it has -ahem- nonstandard methods to deal with these scum. Spain has grown a huge counterterrorism wisdom over decades.
- lupusreal 2 days ago
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- amelius 2 days agoOr a GrapheneOS user ...
- grg0 3 days agoNow we just need every other citizen to understand the benefits of GrapheneOS. Glad to see some people are catching up.
- noman-land 3 days agoWe also need a better boot screen experience.
- noman-land 3 days ago
- thro230-0 2 days ago[flagged]
- MitPitt 2 days agoSounds like an astroturfing stunt from either Google or GrapheneOS