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by Tostino 171 days ago
I am 95% convinced he was caught because we live in a surveillance panopticon.

The McDonald's kiosks could very easily be sharing data with other private companies (e.g. Palantir) who the government contracts with. There are so many other companies jumping in on sharing data like this, why would a company like McDonald's care about selling out customer privacy in exchange for a better bottom line for investors?
2 comments
qcnguy 171 days ago
He got caught because someone recognized his uniquely bushy eyebrows from the wanted photos. This is all documented, no need for advanced theorizing.
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dns_snek 169 days ago
> This is all documented, no need for advanced theorizing.

Something being documented doesn't make it true:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction

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qcnguy 169 days ago
The woman who reported his location said that.
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mlrtime 171 days ago
>I am 95% convinced he was caught because we live in a surveillance panopticon.

I'm sure this is unpopular opinion but I'm glad we can catch murderers quickly which technology. The flip side is worse.

Note: This has nothing to do with the reasons for murdering which I'm not going to debate.

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dns_snek 169 days ago
> I'm glad we can catch murderers quickly which technology.

According to whom? Homicide clearance rates in the US have been getting worse for decades [1][2]. The same is true in the UK, another surveillance state, where only 10% of violent offenses get solved [3].

This promise of a crime-free utopia has been nothing but a deceptive manipulation of the public and the scary part is that it keeps working.

[1] https://www.murderdata.org/p/reported-homicide-clearance-rat...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2023/04/29/1172775448/people-murder-unso...

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/13/most-violent...

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