The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS

[Huzer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201315000

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

Fun stuff!

[geo2maz]

Garage it!

They can also do that with the 'locators' we all carry around: cell phones...

[Huzer]

Yeah, put they can't sneak up to you and drop a cell phone in your pocket!

I thought the dissent was interesting in that it references "poor people" might not have a garage, or can only street park their car. I pity all the "poor" street parking folks in Wash Park.

[chromal]

This is scary stuff, but there have been some recent limits established by the courts. See: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/warrantless-gps-tracking-takes-another-blow-from-dc-court.ars. Since the 9th circuit and DC circuit don't appear to be in harmony, this may well wind up on the bench of the US Supreme Court. (Then again, it may just not.)

@geo2maz: yeah, re: cell phones, yeah pretty much. A-GPS has been standard on all new cell phones for years now. They're a little less accurate in some instances, and, of course, cell phones can be left behind or turned off, but I've no doubt there's a database somewhere logging 'parties of interest' cell phone GPS movements...

[geo2maz]

lol how'd you know i'm in Wash Park?!?! are you tracking me?

[RX-7 Chris]

I don't really care if they track me, they would get board real quick. goes to work, goes home, goes to work, goes to grocery store, goes home. lol

[tbot]

lol...u n me both chris...u n me both

[erod550]

While it is true that anyone tracking me would get bored as well, it is still scary that it can be done at all, and gives the government way more power than it needs to have.

[RX-7 Chris]

While it is true that anyone tracking me would get bored as well, it is still scary that it can be done at all, and gives the government way more power than it needs to have.

I agree

[GTConversion]

I hope this goes to the SCOTUS. I read the court opinions on this case and I still can't make sense of why they don't think it violates the 4th Amendment. There is tons of precedent in lower courts for this sort of thing - they've even ruled that the insides of garages are curtilage. So if an officer is believes you've committed a crime and entered your garage, they can't enter without a warrant unless they're already in "hot pursuit."

[erod550]

Whenever someone says "hot pursuit" I can't help but think of Rosco, lol.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42yoDIv83W4"]YouTube- Rosco P. Coltrane - Feel It In My Bones[/ame]

[Regulator]

When you think about it our privacy has been gone for quite a while now. Every time you swipe your credit card, search for something on google, etc. That info usually gets stored somewhere... and since the price of storage devices keeps going down I think the gathering of info about us is only going to get worse. I don't like it, but theres not much you can do about it it seems..

[Stealth01]

Yeah, the fact that my gmail account advertises for car parts, Buffalo Bills Football, and midget albino porn tells me that my privacy has been gone for a LONG time.

That said, I am more and more tempted to turn off my Droid whenever I drive.

[Huzer]

That said, I am more and more tempted to turn off my Droid whenever I drive.

Yep, it's only a matter of time before we get speeding tickets via cell phone. I know with GPS/rental car places have already done just that.

[Stealth01]

Yeah, it's coming. I've read that On*Star is in negotiations with insurance companies to provide your driving habits to them for rate hikes. One more reason to NEVER, EVER own a GM.