Episode Details

Over the last two decades, tracking “cookies” have been core to the sprawl of surveillance capitalism. Websites lodge little nuggets of text—the cookies—on a user’s computer and they act as a kind of badge signalling what sites they’ve visited or what apps they’ve used. Though little discussed in privacy circles today, and despite European laws that ensure people have control over what kinds of cookies can monitor them, these trackers continue to follow users the world over.

That makes them a useful tool for law enforcement, according to two search warrants reviewed by Forbes.

In August 2025, a man called the Hamilton County Courthouse in Ohio and told staff there was a bomb inside the building. Security staff searched the premises with sniffer dogs, but found nothing. They determined it was a hoax.

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.

The case shows how police can unmask anonymous Gmail users if they’re running multiple accounts on the same device. It also highlights how police can piggyback on tech giants’ tracking mechanisms like cookies. Google hadn’t responded to a request for comment.

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.

“I haven’t seen police rely on cookies in this manner before, but that certainly doesn’t mean they haven’t done so,” Lynch says. “It seems like the police knew that was possible and asked specifically for this information.”

Read the full story on Forbes: By Thomas Brewster  

Senior writer at Forbes covering cybercrime, privacy and surveillance for The Wiretap

https://www.forbes.com/sites/the-wiretap/2026/03/24/google-cookies-help-cops-identify-anonymous-users/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices