GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal

jnaujok writes "The Ninth Circuit court has declared that attaching a GPS tracker to your car, as it sits in your driveway, or by extension on a public street, and then using it to monitor every one of your movements, is totally legal, and can be performed by the police without needing a warrant. So, if you live in the Western United States, big brother has arrived."

The Ninth Circuit

[jgtg32a]

I've been sitting here for 5 min trying to come up with a snarky comment, but the shear stupidity of this has rubbed off on me and I've got nothing.

Why should I worry?

[Anonymous Coward]

I really don't think that the police or CIA or FBI or Illuminati have any interest in me. I am a law abiding citizen, and as far as I am concerned this is not news.

Before this ruling...

[cvtan]

an aluminum foil hat was enough. This guy is way ahead of the curve: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01407/foil-car_1407008i.jpg [telegraph.co.uk]

Re:Sauce for the goose

[publiclurker]

Attaching it to a city bus would be better, you could probably just stick it under a seat. Then, if you feel like having fun, call the transit authorities and say you saw a funny looking device on one of their vehicles.

Re:Sauce for the goose

[whoever57]

Then call in the local news media and bomb squad.

Do you know how many bombs are defused? By a "controlled explosion". As soon as the bomb squad realise what they are dealing with, what is the likelihood of a "controlled explosion" being used on your car?

Alternate suggestion: attach the GPS unit to another vehicle. A bus? Your neighbor's car?

Re:Heh

[stonewallred]

Anyone with a lick of sense knows that lag in WoW is caused by Cheney contacting his dark slave Satan for his weekly updates via the web. Seems old Cheney is too cheap to buy a T1 line to hell.

Re:Sauce for the goose

[zogger]

I was thinking stray cats or pigeons would be more fun.

Re:Heh

[PachmanP]

it's just another troll that wants to blame Obama for everything, even the BP gulf mess and probably even lag when playing WoW.

Well my lag has increased since he took office. If he's not responsible, why won't he just come out and deny it? I'm not saying he did it, but I'd like for him to just shut down any suspicion.

Re:Sauce for the goose

[idontgno]

Where do you live, that cats are ferromagnetic?

Now, steel rabbits and lobsters [albinoblacksheep.com], I could see.

(Yeah, warning, link is a Flash animation, yadda, yadda. If you're a Flash hatah, google "Lobster Magnet" on youtube HTML5 or whatever you use.)

Re:Why should I worry?

[ScrewMaster]

Be careful what you say, we are GPS tracking you.

GPS tracking our online activities? What does that mean, Google Plus Slashdot?

Re:Only if they can do it with out getting shot

[blair1q]

How did you manage that? Shut your eyes and hit the "Submit" button after hitting the "Preview" button?

Re:Why should I worry?

[Fulcrum of Evil]

If I found one, I wouldn't say anything, just swap with another similar car in a parking garage one day.

Re:Sauce for the goose

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. Now I need a tin-foil hat for my car too!

Re:Why should I worry?

[AlamedaStone]

"You bought a car, so we're tracking you"

My vehicle's OnStar already tracks me, I suspect they still listen in as I talk, possibly read metadata from any burned mp3 cd I might pop in, and then report back to the RIAA or the Club of Rome. Then again, I think everyone's out to get me.

We're not out to get you, we just like your taste in music.