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Cops in [Spain] think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer

throwaway74354

There'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.

15155

One random cop makes one ignorant statement and now all "cops in Spain" think something.

munchler

> “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

A 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

You do understand that he speaks for a number of cops at once, not just himself, right?

yorwba

I 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

this 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..

42lux

I've seen news shows at my grandparents that talked about the rage of the masses while quoting three tweets for hours.

Fogest

I've seen so many YouTuber's doing this too. They'll make a 30 minute video showing a few low comment reddit threads and some upset tweets.

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yapyap

When a Twitch streamer goes off on a rant because of a comment one person left its called getting “one guy’d”

ysofunny

the police in spain act like anybody using cloudflare is pirating something, so it kinda checks out

anthk

s,police,laliga,g

prmoustache

Isn't it the justice system enforcing La Liga's bullshit? I don't think the police is involved in this.

elnatro

ClodFlare does not want to comply with court rulings. Not in Spain, nor in France.

throw123xz

Which court rulings in Spain Cloudflare doesn't want to comply with?

skybrian

The 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.

devwastaken

their 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

[dead]

netsharc

If 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

Gigachad

I have one as part of my Melbourne rave outfit.

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anthk

For Gen-Zers, that's the watch everyone's dad and older millenials used to wear everywhere in the world.

seabrookmx

'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

we found him

prmoustache

my 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

  I'm worth two 22-year-olds

  You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo

  You traded in a Rolex for a Casio
if anything your daughter should wear a Rolex?

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torbid

[flagged]

Mr-Frog

In other words, drug dealers are privacy-conscious and the Google Pixel is one of the strongest hardware platforms for privacy-aware configurations.

bapak

> GrapheneOS boasts particularly secure and well-executed full disk and metadata encryption, a security feature

So, the default iPhone experience?

SoftTalker

Yeah I would have guessed it was more the easy availability of cheap android burner phones than Google Pixel specifically.

lazide

Maybe they can also sideload custom apps that would never pass App Store review?

bapak

Being in Europe, I think that's not an issue for iOS anymore.

lazide

They 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.

subroutine

This "Almost Friday" skit about the Google Pixel is comedy gold...

https://youtu.be/faabxveeoZo

zczc

The primary source seems to be https://en.ara.cat/society/technological-warfare-the-drug-tr... (autotranslated from Catalan)

kace91

Both 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

Latest Pixels are nearly 1k EUR though. Slightly too expensive but still a top pick for me.

prmoustache

Latest 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€.

elnatro

Ara is a pro-secessionist diary so take their news about the national police in Spain with a pinch of salt.

dofubej

That’s the Mossos, not the national police of Spain.

elnatro

Then the title is wrong and should mention that “A Catalan policeman says that…”.

MitPitt

Sounds like an astroturfing stunt from either Google or GrapheneOS

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amelius

Or a GrapheneOS user ...

metalman

The 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...

pier25

Spain is one of the biggest gateways of drugs into Europe (if not the biggest one). They've been dealing with LATAM mafia for decades.

lupusreal

They 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

They've actually caught one of those subs being built in Spain! https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/span...

anthk

They 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.

grg0

Now we just need every other citizen to understand the benefits of GrapheneOS. Glad to see some people are catching up.

noman-land

We also need a better boot screen experience.