Wow, I sure hate to be providing a bit of data to support the government's actions, which I find abhorrent, but here goes.
For a long time, if cops have you in custody or were at your house and your phone rang? They'd pick it up and say "hello" You can find out all kinds of incriminating stuff like that.
Of course, that's not actively impersonating somebody, like this case. If I had to guess, I'd say that this was the result of 1) an atmosphere of "we're the government, so we'll do damn well what we please", combined with 2) poor oversight, and 3) similarity to something else that was approved and had worked for years.
Hell of a thing, taking somebody's online identity. You take away all they've got, and all they're ever going to have [1]
[1] Apologies to Clint Eastwood, but it seemed appropriate. We have yet to really figure out the kind of damage things like this can have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lYVggyHRkY
For a long time, if cops have you in custody or were at your house and your phone rang? They'd pick it up and say "hello" You can find out all kinds of incriminating stuff like that.
Of course, that's not actively impersonating somebody, like this case. If I had to guess, I'd say that this was the result of 1) an atmosphere of "we're the government, so we'll do damn well what we please", combined with 2) poor oversight, and 3) similarity to something else that was approved and had worked for years.
Hell of a thing, taking somebody's online identity. You take away all they've got, and all they're ever going to have [1]
[1] Apologies to Clint Eastwood, but it seemed appropriate. We have yet to really figure out the kind of damage things like this can have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lYVggyHRkY