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.
That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant.
----It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.
This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.
After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)
I have a problem with the federal government putting a device on the car anywhere with out warrant. I don't have a problem with a private company sharing this info with the government on from the products the supply and you choose to buy. I see it as a marketing tool for a biz saying they will not share the info unless forced to by the power of a warrant. It's no more than a company turning over video camera evidence after a crime if they choose to do so.
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"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
the gov't can lie cheat and steal to you, but you do it to them and you're a felon facing serious jail time!
although nowadays I just assume everyone assumes they're being tracked or could be tracked due to their cell phone....even turned off I've heard you can be tracked by your cell phone carrier etc...I think the battery has to be removed from your cell to not be tracked, even then I'm not sure....so don't want to be tracked by your cell, leave it at home!
In Texas you have the right to shoot anyone appearing to steel or break into your car. I just hope if they get close enough to my car to install a device it's in broad daylight!
So I would say that west of the Mississippi, there could be a marketing need for a device which would disable such devices ? Something mounted on a 'handle' much as DEA agents use to peer at the undercarriage of your car with a mirror...and just magnetize or EMP the device into uselessness ? This way, before you start your car, you just 'sweep' it with the device and drive with confidence in your privacy (unless you have a cell phone).
I believe that currently, you cannot be tracked by cell phone without a warrant...all the cell phone carriers can track you at will, provided they are compelled by government law enforcement. I could be wrong......
I believe that currently, you cannot be tracked by cell phone without a warrant...all the cell phone carriers can track you at will, provided they are compelled by government law enforcement. I could be wrong......
This might be true (idk), but I have heard that the state police here in Michigan have used cell phone tracking to locate lost and/or dead hunters/hikers. While this is a different use of course it still shows how if the technology is there it can be employed rightly and/or wrongly.
This might be true (idk), but I have heard that the state police here in Michigan have used cell phone tracking to locate lost and/or dead hunters/hikers. While this is a different use of course it still shows how if the technology is there it can be employed rightly and/or wrongly.
That's absolutely correct...but I believe the phone has to be powered up. Once it's on, it seeks to connect to a network, where once it's connected, the unit is identified by it's ESN, and by extension, the owner is connected. The point of contact, the cell tower receiving the signal, can be traced and your location approximated based on the range of the phone's transmitter and the location of the antenna on the cell tower. A person's progress is tracked as he travels, when his cell connections are handed off from cell-tower to cell-tower while he drives or otherwise travels about his daily business. I'm not sure, but I do not believe that a powered-off phone, or one where the battery is dead, can be tracked by GPS because a network connection mus be maintained for the function on the phone to work. I could be wrong...wouldn't be the first time and wont' be the last...
Location: On an Island in the west coast of New England
Posts: 13,071
I agree with Bergall
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Court of Appeals: state has right to track you w/GPS, no warrant req'd
