New court filings allege that Homeland Security Investigations agents subpoenaed the outdoor retailer in March, requesting the transaction information for “all persons” in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area who had purchased a specific type of dark green beanie from the company since 2024. REI did not respond to questions about whether it had complied with the request and, if so, how many people are affected.
Not hard to see how this gets applied to all the other things we buy, especially Bitcoin specific devices #1562086. Today it's ICE looking for protestors, but not hard to imagine credulous judges giving the IRS authority to plumb the depths of hardware wallet manufacturer databases for a lead on some particularly horrible tax-evading criminal.
The subpoena to REI was one of 92 sent as part of HSI’s investigation into the defendants, according to the court filings. Other recipients included social media companies, airlines, telecom providers, a car rental company, and a state employment agency. At least one subpoena sent to an unnamed airline, the filings allege, asked not only for information about a defendant’s past flights, but also requested that the airline give HSI a “lookout notification” about the defendant’s travel in the future. DHS declined to comment. The US Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, which is litigating the case on behalf of the government, did not respond questions about why it was necessary to identify everyone in Minnesota who purchased the beanie from REI, or why it specifically targeted REI customers, since the beanie is sold on other platforms as well.
We need payment methods that are not attached to our identities.
Can't they buy that info in the open market from third parties already?
Ah, I forgot about that in my zealous outrage. Nevermind then.
That was a genuine question. I'm not sure if that is correct.
That is the most obscure, mundane beanie in the world. I mean, practically 99.9% of ICE personnel in the field wear one just like it (there's one exception - that yahoo with the cowboy hat prominently displayed with Bovino's squad photos)...
Hmm... you know I used to love watching Law and Order and the detectives would sometimes go into a store and yell at the merchant "GIVE ME A LIST OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT X Y Z between dates A B C" and I'd be like F YEAH YOU GO CATCH DAT MURDERER
How is this different? Or is it?
Not much. I remember handling a personnel termination because, among other things, the person wasn't supposed to be drinking on the clock. We had a full pattern of bar credit card charges and receipts based on his name and credit card number showing the exact time, charge and bar location. And that was in addition to the bar video camera tape showing him at the bar multiple times (which of course he denied was him).
The use of cash is declining:
While Law and Order detectives of the '90s may have demanded such data, I suspect that it was rather less comprehensive than "Give us every person who bought a green beanie in the last two years."
In the case of the fellow who was drinking on the clock: the question "Did Joe buy a drink here on this day?" seems to me quite different from "What is the name of all the people who bought a drink here for the last two years?"
Reason I'm bringing it up is because I wonder why I have one reaction when i watch law and order, and another reaction when i see this headline.
Perhaps it's because I don't trust ICE's motives? If they were targeting a single criminal, then I'd be more open to it than if they were trying to identify protestors, for example.
Or perhaps it's the size of the net they're casting? "Every person who bought a green beanie in the greater minneapolis area for 2 years" is a lot wider than a single store in the 90s, as you said.
Based on this, by 2040, -10% of payments will be using cash 😱
ufff bro this is troubling
Citizen Vigilante is a good movie that the government don't want you to see.
confirmation of an identity technically comes from three pieces of information;
legal identification:
triangulation via internet:
real world:
becuz many bad dirty people don't act right, all kinds of schemes are attempted in order to identify, categorize, and eventually bring to judgment if necessary; however, oftentimes the creators of these unnatural indentification schemes get lost in their own wild-goose chase;
in the little towns or villages it's much simpler; i heard a story of a baby-eating feline predator one time - the big cat doesn't have an IP, a registered address, or a collar - one simply has to go out, observe, be patient, and eventually get it; it's the hard way, which is often the correct way;
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