View Full Version : Time: The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves
Ducimus
08-25-10, 06:41 PM
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2013150,00.html
Platapus
08-25-10, 07:07 PM
I guess I better clean out my garage and park my car in my garage
(I wish)
Sailor Steve
08-25-10, 07:12 PM
In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.
Several years ago A Texas man was taken to trial for shooting a repo man trying to take his truck in the middle of the night. The trial ended with his aquittal. The decision was that his driveway was indeed his private property.
I'm glad to see the DC Court of Appeals has a different opinion.
Eh, this isn't necessarily new. Like it or not, the government has always had the capacity to track you discretely if it wanted to; maybe the only real difference here is that it's maybe a bit cheaper to do this technically now than it was before. I'm not sure if it really makes it more (or less) likely for them to want to track the average person though.
Not saying that doing something like that isn't outrageous (of course it is!), but I think people have to be realistic about this. It's been done and will be done, and if you want to do something about it, the only way to (legally and ethically) do anything about it is to ask your representative(s) tough questions.
years, and although other techniques are used frequently.they can use your cell phone or PC as an example.
Sailor Steve
08-25-10, 07:24 PM
What is interesting isn't the fact that they've been doing it. That is a given, and I'm sure we all already knew that. What is interesting is the different opinions the courts are giving. What is even more interesting will be how it turns out.
Castout
08-25-10, 07:51 PM
Privacy doesn't exist in the part of world why should it exist over there?:hmmm:
Platapus
08-25-10, 07:55 PM
If you discover one of the GPS trackers, can you be punished if you remove it? Especially if it was placed there without a warrant?
Ducimus
08-25-10, 07:56 PM
years, and although other techniques are used frequently.they can use your cell phone or PC as an example.
True, but they require a warrant to get that information from the phone companies. I think the issue is tracking citizens without any warrant at all.
Privacy doesn't exist in the part of world why should it exist over there?:hmmm:
Because the US is supposed to be the land of the free? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? (insert red white and blue, patroitic spiel about founding fathers here )
True, but they require a warrant to get that information from the phone companies. I think the issue is tracking citizens without any warrant at all.
) but if they want to track an individual without their knowing it is possible to arrange this, no decision from the company, but by law, normal prosecutor or Judge to have given approval for this type of tracking, where the information is stored in different base stations,but that, unfortunately, is regrettable as it is very much not defend his rights!
Ducimus
08-25-10, 09:18 PM
Well, I want Law enforcement to be able to do it's job, to get bad guys off the street without having to cut through miles of bureaucratic red tape in order to do so. However, being able to do "stuff" without a warrant is basicly allowing the government to say:
"We will do what we want, citizen."
And if that's true, in that context, we may as well have no rights at all. At which point, any comparisons to "1984" ceases to become an embellished metaphor, but cold hard reality.
Well, I want Law enforcement to be able to do it's job, to get bad guys off the street without having to cut through miles of bureaucratic red tape in order to do so. However, being able to do "stuff" without a warrant is basicly allowing the government to say:
"We will do what we want, citizen."
And if that's true, in that context, we may as well have no rights at all. At which point, any comparisons to "1984" ceases to become an embellished metaphor, but cold hard reality. it is hard and cold,and as you say yourself, reality.
Or they could just put a couple donut eaters in an unmarked and follow the suspect like they have always done. Is this electronic version of the discrete tail any more intrusive?
Or they could just put a couple donut eaters in an unmarked and follow the suspect like they have always done. Is this electronic version of the discrete tail any more intrusive?
No, but like I said, the main thing is that it's a lot cheaper and less labour-intensive. That may (or may not) make it more likely to actually be deployed to monitor someone just-in-case, as opposed to on a serious lead. Putting cops on someone's tail is at least one of those things where the question of "is it really worth it?" would likely come up.
Ducimus
08-25-10, 10:13 PM
. That may (or may not) make it more likely to actually be deployed to monitor someone
That sentence made me think of this.
Imagine if the local authorities came by your house, and slapped an ankle monitor on you, without any provocation that you were aware of. They just show up one day, and slap one of those ankle monitors on you, so they know where you are at all times.
A GPS slapped on your car, without a warrant, is the same damn thing.
That'd be pretty disturbing indeed. But my assumption was that having a GPS monitor like that placed on the car was something that was done discretely and without your knowledge...
Ducimus
08-25-10, 10:34 PM
That'd be pretty disturbing indeed. But my assumption was that having a GPS monitor like that placed on the car was something that was done discretely and without your knowledge...
If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody's around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
Sailor Steve
08-25-10, 11:11 PM
Imagine if the local authorities came by your house, and slapped an ankle monitor on you, without any provocation that you were aware of. They just show up one day, and slap one of those ankle monitors on you, so they know where you are at all times.
And you know that if they could do it without you noticing they would.
gimpy117
08-26-10, 01:59 AM
but nobody was worried about bush wiretapping
Sailor Steve
08-26-10, 09:27 AM
but nobody was worried about bush wiretapping
I was. I don't care who does it. It's wrong.
But you seem bent on turning everything into your own partisan politics, so why would you believe me?
No, but like I said, the main thing is that it's a lot cheaper and less labour-intensive. That may (or may not) make it more likely to actually be deployed to monitor someone just-in-case, as opposed to on a serious lead. Putting cops on someone's tail is at least one of those things where the question of "is it really worth it?" would likely come up.
Well one thing to consider is that a GPS device can't tell you who is driving the car. As evidence it would be a heckuva lot weaker than a couple detectives testifying that they actually saw the defendant get out of the vehicle at the crime scene.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.