Calif. Man Claims He Found Two GPS Tracking Device

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EmptyTimCup

Guest
:belvak:




Calif. Man Claims He Found Two GPS Tracking Devices Under His SUV


Today, the Supreme Court listened to arguments from both sides regarding the use of GPS technology as tracking devices on cars without a warrant. During this same time, Wired reported that a San Jose, Calif., man had come forward to them stating he had found not one but two GPS devices stuck under his SUV.

Here‘s Wired’s account of the 25-year-old going only by Greg:

[...] he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man’s girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.

Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.

[...]

Greg says he discovered the first tracker on his vehicle after noticing what looked like a cell phone antenna inside a hole on his back bumper where a cable is stored for towing a trailer. The device, the size of a mobile phone, was not attached to a battery pack, suggesting the battery was embedded in its casing.​

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So what about the cops showing up? Wired explains:

When this reporter drove down to meet Greg and photograph the second tracker with photographer Snyder, three police cars appeared at the location that had been pre-arranged with Greg, at various points driving directly behind me without making any verbal contact before leaving.

After moving the photo shoot to a Rotten Robbie gas station a mile away from the first location, another police car showed up. In this case, the officer entered the station smiling at me and turned his car around to face the direction of Greg’s car, a couple hundred yards away. He remained there while the device was photographed. A passenger in the police car, dressed in civilian clothes, stepped out of the vehicle to fill a gas container, then the two left shortly before the photo shoot was completed.​

With this story released today, the Supreme Court met to hear a case on the constitutionality of using GPS devices without a warrant. We reported on the case last week, previewing the arguments with which the justices would be posed. The Associated Press reports that the justices appeared “unsettled” on the case of how or whether to regulate GPS tracking today.

The court heard arguments in the Obama administration’s appeal of a court ruling that threw out a drug conspiracy conviction against Antoine Jones. FBI agents and local police did not have a valid search warrant when they installed a GPS device on Jones’ car and collected travel information.

The justices were especially taken aback when the lawyer representing the government said police officers could install GPS devices on the justices’ cars and track their movements without a warrant.

Justice Samuel Alito captured the essence of the court’s concern when he said, “With computers around, it’s now so simple to amass an enormous amount of information. How do we deal with this? Just say nothing has changed?”

Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben said it would be better for lawmakers rather than judges to set limits. Dreeben said the concerns expressed Tuesday were similar to those in the earlier high court case. Thirty years ago, Dreeben said, “Beeper technology seemed extraordinarily advanced.”

He also sought to portray GPS use as one among many police tracking methods that do not call for a warrant. Police can go through people’s trash, obtain information about who they call, even follow them round-the-clock without a warrant, he said.

GPS devices are especially useful in early stages of an investigation, when they can eliminate the use of time-consuming stakeouts as officers seek to gather evidence, he said.
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dave1959

dave1959

Active Member
This situation has come up before on these forums and I'll stick with my same attitude....If the POPO are puting GPS on your car without your knowledge you probably are about to have some more serious issues.
 
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EmptyTimCup

Guest
jackers said:
I know. I absolutely oppose this infringement. It's just the standard excuse given when you hear about something like this.
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Not From Me You Won't ..........


I despise this crap .......
 
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EmptyTimCup

Guest
preselector said:
Seems to me you should be able to keep unsolicited gifts from law enforcement.
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I would stick it on an train bound for California ....


or a container ship over seas .......


fedex it to a Iraq :killingme
 
migtig

migtig

aka Mrs. Giant
I admit that my first thought was "what is this guy doing that's illegal"...see I had already convicted him. But then the more I thought about it, the more I decided this is really scary, any citizen tracked regardless.

Once I read the whole article I discovered this guy is only guilty by association/family relationship. Heck I think using that broad of a paintbrush, we all are guilty by association

I don't understand why we (ona whole) aren't more outraged by this. Is it due to societal conditioning? New phones, new cars, all have GPS tracking nowadays. You can get a cheaper rate on your insurance if you install the insurance companies monitor on your car. From Progressive's website:
Will Progressive share Snapshot data with anyone else?
We won’t share Snapshot data with a third party unless it’s required to service your insurance policy, prevent fraud, perform research or comply with the law. We also won’t use Snapshot data to resolve a claim unless you or the registered vehicle owner gives us permission.


When you zoom out onto the big picture and all its implications with GPS tracking, this can be quite frightening.
 
migtig

migtig

aka Mrs. Giant
jackers said:
We'll just hear that if you don't do anything wrong you won't get one (or two) of those things installed.
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And that mentality is what has sent thousands of people to their deaths in other countries in years past..
"If I've done nothing wrong I have nothing to fear" as I walk to the execution chamber (Hitler), go to a "re-education camp" (Pol Pot & Mao), get sent to work camps (Lenin & Stalin), have my arm chopped off and get raped (Idi Amin Dada), lose all my money and starve in the street (Mugabe)...
 
jackers

jackers

New Member
migtig said:
And that mentality is what has sent thousands of people to their deaths in other countries in years past..
"If I've done nothing wrong I have nothing to fear" as I walk to the execution chamber (Hitler), go to a "re-education camp" (Pol Pot & Mao), get sent to work camps (Lenin & Stalin), have my arm chopped off and get raped (Idi Amin Dada), lose all my money and starve in the street (Mugabe)...
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That's why I said, "We'll just hear." It was the standard response to anyone that questions this sort of thing. Look at the examples of TSA abuse, or the trunk searches in DC. Or in this forum when questioning cops or the thread about video-taping a cop.

But that's what you hear from people who support the Patriot Act, TSA, DUI checkpoints, etc.
 
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