How Cops Use Google’s Cookies To Unmask Anonymous Users Google's cookies help cops identify a bomb hoax suspect in Ohio. This is the online edition of The Wiretap newsletter, your weekly digest of cybersecurity, internet privacy and surveillance news. To get it in your inbox, The search warrants say that investigators linked the caller with an anonymous Gmail email. Investigators then asked Google to disclose what other users had accessed this account. That’s where Google’s cookies proved crucial. The cookies showed that a single iPhone had been used for both the Google account linked to the hoax, and another Google account, which a user registered with their real identity. The cops had a name, Don'tavius Conley, who has now been charged with transmission of a bomb threat, and false information and hoaxes. He has pleaded not guilty. Though law enforcement often uses Google data to learn more about the subject of an investigation, they usually seek information like locations and email content. Identifying an anonymous suspect via cookies is rare, but has likely happened in other cases, says Jennifer Lynch, general counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. , it applies to any devices made outside of the U.S. . It comes amid fears that China could spy on Americans via routers made by TP-Link, one of the biggest router providers in the world with billions of users, which has denied its systems allow for any backdoor snooping.online rose significantly in 2025. It identified 8,029 AI-made images and videos throughout the year, a 260-fold increase from 2024.that could be used to carry out surveillance on millions of people using older versions of Apple’s operating system up to iOS 18, TechCrunch. Previously, former FBI director Christopher Wray had said the FBI was not buying such data, though it had done so in the past. The broker industry has long provided a way for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to acquire location data without the need for a warrant.. The FBI said they sold billions of dollars’ worth of servers with controlled Nvidia graphic processing units to buyers in Beijing. One of the other defendants is Supermicro’s Taiwan general manager Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, while the third is a “fixer” named Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun. After his arrest, Liaw resigned his Supermicro board seat. None have issued a plea and remain innocent until proven guilty.