The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is a story that has captured the attention of the nation.
The most essential part of the story is a shared desire for Guthrie to be found and reunited with her family. I, like many others, have been praying diligently for her safe return. However, there is another aspect of this riveting story that is grabbing attention: the astonishing use of technology to solve this case.
Following Guthrie’s disappearance, we have heard about surveillance and digital retrieval tools, devices that many never knew existed.
Fox News, in a report breaking down different tech used in the investigation, noted: “The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is heartbreaking. It also highlights how deeply modern technology is woven into everyday life. Digital data from phones, cellular networks, and cameras can offer valuable insights…”
This story spotlights a disturbing reality. The surge of surveillance will continue, in our country and throughout the world. Almost everywhere we go, we are leaving behind a digital footprint.
As I watched a segment of the non-stop coverage of the Nancy Guthrie mystery, I saw something I had never seen before. An FBI agent had a briefcase-like object in her hand, called “Cellebrite.” It is a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFD)โIsraeli technology used for data extraction and analysis from smartphones, SIM cards, and more.
According to the New York Post, the Cellebrite briefcase “was a key factor in the investigation.”
โAny cellphone that was in that area is going to have pinged off a tower,” former FBI agent Michael Harrigan described to The New York Post. “Itโs going to leave a signature or date timestamp that it was there. You see the Marshals use that a lot.”
โMarshals are phenomenal with tracking fugitives with that, but the [FBI] and other law enforcement use it also,” he continued. “They download the cellphone data from towers to identify what cellphones may have been in the area. And then they can go back with subpoenas. They can go back or search warrants to the providers and then get the information on who that was.”
The Cellebrite device is involved in 97% of crimes solved by smartphone data. It’s an industry-standard high-end mobile forensics tool used by law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies to extract, decrypt, and analyze data from thousands of mobile devices. It can bypass locks, recover deleted content, and access app data. Basically, nothing can be permanently erased and hidden.
A recent Daily Mail headline read, “Now YOU hold the key to solving crime: Smartphones are the most crucial piece of evidence in probes.”
The article states, “Smartphones are now the most crucial source of digital evidence in solving nearly every criminal investigation, a report has found. Detectives rely on the wealth of information held on the devices in 97 per cent of cases – double the number in which data from laptops was needed.”
They go on to say, “With the devices containing swathes of detailed messages, photos and location data, police chiefs told the Mail the devices had become ‘a crime scene in your pocket.'”
Now, think about this: there are 7.5 billion smartphones in the world, all wielding the ability to track humanity.
Another major breakthrough in this case came as a result of another amazing technological feat. Another headline from NBC News read, “Investigators wrangled video from Nancy Guthrieโs Google Nest camera out of โbackend systems.โ”
The article explains:
Itโs not yet clear how the FBI collected the video. Experts said in some cases itโs possible to collect data from the complex infrastructure that has enabled cloud-based cameras…
The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems,โ [FBI Director Kash Patel]ย wrote on X…
Timothy Gallagher, a retired FBI agent who was in charge of the Newark, New Jersey, field office and also has worked in cyber investigations, said that even if Guthrie had not been paying for a subscription, the device could still have been transmitting images to Google.
โThe data is being transmitted to the cloud, but even if it had not gotten there, there are many stops in between where data will reside, and the FBI prides itself on being able to tear into these data streams and pull out bits and pieces of data and piece together an image like we see here today,โ Gallagher said.
Former FBI cybercrime agent E.J. Hilbert said that it can be challenging for Google to find recordings and that it takes time for legal processes to play out.
โNest/Google deletes billions of data points every hour,โ Hilbert said in an email. โTo find this data set means that they are finding a single needle in a 10K ft by 10Kft haystack.โ
In Tucson, where the crime took place, there is widespread coverage by Flock Safety cameras. In addition, more than 200 automatic license plate readers are deployed in the area, as well as all over the country. They know where we are all the time and what we’re doing.
As I said earlier, there are billions of smartphones in the world, but even that might be changing soon. According to an article from last September, “Bill Gates believes the age of handheld devices is coming to an end.”
“Instead, he envisions a future whereย electronic tattoosย are embedded in your skin, seamlessly connecting you to the digital world,” the article detailed. “These tattoos wouldnโt just replace phonesโthey could allow you to communicate, access theย internet, and monitor your health without a single screen. Imagine interacting with the world with a simple gesture on your own arm.”
“So what are electronic tattoos exactly? Picture temporary, skin-based apps using smart ink embedded with nanocapacitors,” they continued. “These tattoos communicate with nearby devices, letting you perform tasks with a swipe or tap.”
Think about how these exploding technologies can be used for global surveillance, constantly being improved and expanded. It’s not too difficult to imagine a world where no one has any secrets. Everything will be quickly extracted from your phone, digital tattoo, or some other technology.
These developments are just a faint foreshadowing of what is coming in the future. What is used today to fight crime and terrorism is going to be universalized and globalized. The Bible, in Revelation 13, suggests that surveillance technology is going to be used to track, locate, and seize those who refuse the control of the antichrist. There will literally be no place to hide.
