This AI-powered tool, available online, is being used by police to catch criminals
In the summer of 2020, a shooting in Ohio left a child dead and two adults injured. To solve the case, police turned to a tool called Cybercheck. Developed by Canadian firm Global Intelligence, the technology promised to locate suspects using only publicly available data on the internet. It sounded too good to be true, and as you’ll see, it probably was.
Cybercheck claims to be able to track a person's location in real time or in the past, using more than 700 algorithms that analyze their "online profile" interactions with Wi-Fi networks and hotspots.
The process is fully automated, requires no human intervention, and is accessible to any police officer around the world, for just $309 per case, says Global Intelligence founder Adam Mosher.
However, an analysis by Wired raised a number of “clamations” about Cybercheck’s effectiveness and accuracy. In several cases, the tool was inaccurate or impossible to verify.
Cybercheck continues to expand among US police despite its failures
This tool arguably suffers from two major problems: lack of transparency and honesty. For one thing, the tool doesn’t keep evidence to support its findings. It doesn’t record where it gets its data from or how it makes connections between them.
On the other hand, many experts point out that it is very difficult to obtain certain information that appears in Cybercheck reports from public sources only. For example, determining when a particular device connected to a Wi-Fi network usually requires physical access to that person’s device or network logs.
Returning to the Ohio case, Cybercheck generated a report that supposedly placed the suspect, Philip Mendoza, at the crime scene. However, the defense attorney discovered that the tool generated two identical reports on different dates, with an accuracy of 93.13%.
As more attorneys began to question the technology, prosecutors in several states began pulling Cybercheck reports into evidence. In Ohio, the Summit County District Attorney’s Office decided not to use Cybercheck in several murder cases. And in Texas, prosecutors pulled the report midway through the process when they realized they couldn’t verify the data provided by Cybercheck.
Right now, the future of Cybercheck hangs in the balance. While some police departments continue to use the tool, others have abandoned it. What is clear is that the promise of solving crimes with just a few clicks remains tempting to many.
Despite all this, this AI tool has spread quickly among police departments in the United States. Many agencies, desperate to solve difficult cases, are using it despite its shortcomings.
- Cybercheck Tool