New Bill Introduced To Outlaw GPS Tracking Without Consent

from the oh-big-brother dept

We've been noting, over the past few years, the growing number of lawsuits involving the legality of law enforcement tracking people's movements with GPS devices. There are some mixed and contradictory rulings, which means it'll all likely hit the Supreme Court at some point, but a new bill in the Senate from Ron Wyden and in the House from Rep. Jason Chaffetz apparently seeks to do an end-run around all of that and have Congress clarify the law by saying it's illegal to track that kind of data without a warrant. The bill using yet another "cute" acronym is the "Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act" -- or the GPS Act. Get it?

I do wonder if some of the prohibitions on "intercepting" such information go too far -- though there is a "normal course of business" exception in the law. The key focus of the bill really seems on law enforcement, and requiring them to take the not-at-all-onerous step of first getting a warrant. This is eminently reasonable, but you can bet that law enforcement is going to go ballistic about how this bill will "harm" investigations and put people at risk. Get ready for the fear mongering... Update: The bill is to be introduced next week, and there may be some changes from the current draft I was basing this on...

Filed Under: 4th amendment, gps, jason chaffetz, privacy, ron wyden, tracking, warrants

iFixit & Wired Teardown Of FBI Tracking Device Found On Activist's Car

from the now-that's-a-teardown dept

You may recall a big story from last fall about a guy who found a GPS tracking device on his car (because of a friend's Reddit comment). The FBI showed up and demanded the device back after the guy had posted on Reddit about it. Of course, lots of people wondered what they would do if they found such a device on their car -- with most insisting they would not turn it back over to the FBI.

Well, one woman who actually had found such a device and still had it, read that same story, and decided to give it to Wired, who then teamed up with the teardown experts at iFixit to tear down the device. Wired has a full story about the device and iFixit has the teardown details. The Wired article also covers some of the ongoing legal battles about such tracking, though as Clive Thompson points out, this idea of sticking a device on cars seems like it's going to be increasingly outdated, considering that the feds now feel comfortable asking mobile operators to simply hand over location info from phone users, sometimes without a warrant.

Filed Under: fbi, gps, teardown, tracking device

TomTom Apologizes For Selling Speeding Data To Dutch Government

from the privacy? dept

TomTom, the troubled GPS navigation device maker, was forced to quickly apologize after news reports came out about how the company had sold aggregate data on driving habits it collected from the devices to the Dutch government, who then used that data to figure out where to set up speed traps and speed cameras. TomTom claims they thought the data would just be used for improving traffic safety, not for speed traps (though, I would imagine that some would claim that speed traps are a way to improve traffic safety). TomTom's CEO Harold Goddijn didn't exactly come off as convincing in saying:

"We don't like that because our customers don't like it... We will prevent that type of usage of our data in the future."

Of course, they could just not like it because it's intrusive. Then they might have thought about it before selling the data. And it's not clear how they can sell the data and only make sure that it's used for one purpose and not others.

Filed Under: data, gps, netherlands, privacy, tracking
Companies: tomtom

Feds Tell Supreme Court They Should Be Able To Stick A GPS Device On Your Car Without A Warrant

from the 4th-amendment,-what's-that? dept

In the federal government's apparent ongoing quest to stamp out any remnants of the 4th Amendment, the administration has now officially petitioned the Supreme Court to let it stick GPS devices on cars with no warrant. This seems like the sort of case that the Supreme Court will actually be interested in hearing. That's because a variety of federal courts have ruled that it's legal to put a tracking device on your car without a warrant... However, last summer, the DC Circuit appeals court said that such GPS tracking, if done for a long time, crosses the line and becomes illegal. The standard the court used was pretty vague, but now there's something of a circuit split, and that's what generally interests the Supreme Court.

Either way, the government's position is clear: it shouldn't need a warrant to track you. The feds seem to be playing a bit of a questionable game with your privacy here. They claim that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in your daily movements. To some extent that's true. If you're out in public, and people can see you, then it's not private. But the real question here is somewhat more complex: if you don't see anyone following you, do you have an expectation of privacy in your long-term aggregate movements? I would think there's a much stronger argument there. I would think that just being spotted in public, or even followed in public, is reasonable as there's no real expectation of privacy. But the calculus may, in fact, change when we're talking about the aggregate information of pretty much all of your daily movements over a long term... especially when the person might never realize that anyone is watching them. In such situations, it seems like there is an expectation of privacy about that aggregate info.

Other than the DC court, however, most courts haven't recognized that difference between snippets of daily movements and the aggregation of daily movements. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Supreme Court won't recognize the difference either, and yet another prong of the 4th Amendment will disappear forever.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, gps, privacy, warrant

Student Who Found GPS Device On His Car Due To Reddit Comment Sues The FBI

from the don't-mess-with-reddit dept

Last fall, we wrote about the bizarre situation of Yasir Afifi, a student here in California who discovered a GPS tracking device on his car during an oil change, and then posted photos of the device on Reddit. Following that, the FBI showed up at his house demanding the tracking device back. It later turned out that the key reason behind tracking him was a random comment on Reddit that -- if read in context -- did not represent any kind of threat or warning that should have resulted in FBI surveillance. But, of course, since there's almost no oversight on who the FBI gets to spy on, it didn't care and just started tracking Afifi.

Afifi has now sued the government over the tracking action, claiming that it was a violation of his civil rights. There are some differences of opinion in the courts over whether or not the government needs a warrant to place GPS devices on cars, which provides some background for this case. There's a bit of a circuit split on that right now, with the government (obviously) insisting that no warrant is needed. Part of the goal of this lawsuit appears to be to get another ruling on this issue to push it forward. Given the history on this subject, I would guess that Afifi will likely lose the lawsuit, but the possibility that it actually does go in his favor makes the case worth paying attention to.

Filed Under: fbi, gps, tracking, warrant, yasir afifi

Homeland Security Strapping GPS Devices To Indian Students Victimized By Scam

from the welcome-to-america dept

Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) group sure know how to create "international incidents" left and right. The latest (as pointed out by Slashdot) is that as part of the process of reviewing the cases of a bunch of Indian students who were allegedly duped by an operation called "Tri-Valley University" in California, ICE agents have put GPS tagging ankle-bracelets on the students to track their movements. According to the reports, Tri-Valley was a "sham" that helped foreign nationals gain immigration status in the US. That certainly sounds like it's broken the law, but to then go and tag the students with GPS monitoring bracelets while ICE sorts this all out seems rather aggressive -- and officials back in India are protesting the way the students are being treated:

But New Delhi is not happy with students being treated like criminals. Expressing "serious concern," a government spokesman said India has conveyed to the US authorities that the students, "most of who are victims themselves, must be treated fairly and reasonably, and that the use of monitors on a group of students, who were detained and later released with monitors in accordance with US laws, is unwarranted and should be removed."

It's almost as if ICE's goal is to make the US government an even bigger laughingstock for being the stereotypical over aggressive law enforcement cowboys often portrayed in the movies.

Filed Under: gps, homeland security, india, scams

Guy Finds FBI Tracking Device On Car, Posts Pics Online... FBI Shows Up Demanding It Back

from the well-that-confirms-it... dept

Just a couple weeks ago, we had written about a federal lawsuit concerning whether or not the Justice Department needs a warrant to put a tracking device on cars. In a very prescient manner, a bunch of our commenters started discussing what would happen if they found such a device on their car, and whether or not it would be legal to remove it. Well, now we have a case of exactly that happening.

Apparently a guy named Yasir Afifi, who lives in Silicon Valley, discovered a strange device on his car, when he took it in for an oil change. The friend he was with took some photos and posted them to Reddit, asking if it meant the FBI was after them... or if it was a bomb: Lots of people in the thread quickly confirmed that it was a tracking device, made by a company who only sold to law enforcement. Then, to confirm things, a couple of days later, the FBI showed up to demand he return the device. Wired has a cinematic description of the encounter:

Afifi considered selling the device on Craigslist before the FBI showed up. He was in his apartment Tuesday afternoon when a roommate told him "two sneaky-looking people" were near his car. Afifi, already heading out for an appointment, encountered a man and woman looking his vehicle outside. The man asked if Afifi knew his registration tag was expired. When Afifi asked if it bothered him, the man just smiled. Afifi got into his car and headed for the parking lot exit when two SUVs pulled up with flashing lights carrying four police officers in bullet-proof vests.

The agent who initially spoke with Afifi identified himself then as Vincent and told Afifi, "We're here to recover the device you found on your vehicle. It's federal property. It's an expensive piece, and we need it right now."

Afifi asked, "Are you the guys that put it there?" and the agent replied, "Yeah, I put it there." He told Afifi, "We're going to make this much more difficult for you if you don't cooperate."

The full story is a lot longer, and a fascinating read, so head over to that link to check it out. It also suggests some of the reasons why the FBI might be watching Afifi -- who says he already knows he's on the federal watchlist -- as well as concerns from the ACLU over the whole thing. Wired also spoke to an ex-FBI agent who thought that the FBI almost certainly would have gotten a warrant to install the device (though, given all the lawsuits, it seems they don't always do so...) and who also pointed out that this particular device is really old. The newer devices, apparently, are much harder to find. They don't come with their own battery pack, but run off the car's battery, and are much more well hidden.

Either way, apparently this gives the FBI's answer to what happens if you find the device. The friend on Reddit claimed they had thought about throwing it in a lake, or even just putting it on another car, "but when you come home to 2 stoned off their asses people who are hearing things in the device and convinced its a bomb you just gotta be sure."

Filed Under: fbi, gps, tracking

More Stories Of People Following GPS Blindly Into Dangerous Situations

from the on-top-of-a-mountain-and-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake dept

We've had tons of stories over the years of people blindly obeying their GPS devices way too far, leading to dangerous results... and yet it keeps on happening. Here are two more examples, with one leading to a car stuck atop a mountain, and the other at the bottom of a reservoir. The first, sent in by btr1701, involves a guy in Switzerland who followed his GPS up a mountain on a road so narrow that eventually his car got stuck and had to be helicoptered out (there are pictures at the link).

Then there's the guy over in Spain, who followed his GPS directions directly into a reservoir and drowned (the passenger in his car managed to escape and make it to shore, but the driver was apparently unable to swim). The report notes that the reservoir in question is Spain's largest and has been there since 1989, so it seems like any GPS mapping system should be aware of the change by now.

Either way, it still does make you wonder why people believe their GPS over their own lying eyes.

Filed Under: directions, gps

Justice Department Insists It Should Be Able To Secretly Stick GPS Devices On Cars Without Warrants

from the privacy-is-dead dept

Back in August, we wrote about the (somewhat surprising) appeals court ruling in the District of Columbia circuit saying that longterm GPS tracking of someone by law enforcement required a warrant. The issues at play here certainly aren't entirely clearcut. After all, it does make sense that when you're in a public space, you have little expectation of privacy. But is that true when it comes to tracking everywhere you go in public? That seems a little more questionable, and it's clearly the part that the court had trouble with, noting that short bursts of surveillance don't require a warrant, but sustained surveillance gets past the expectation of privacy barrier and requires a warrant. While some worry that this is too vague, it does have a certain amount of logic to it.

Either way, the Justice Department wants none of that, and is asking the full circuit to rehear the case and reverse the original ruling, saying that it should not require a warrant, suggesting that the sum of all our public travel does not deserve any privacy. While I do agree that the initial "rules" are vague, I have to agree that sustained, long-term tracking through a secretly installed GPS devices does seem to cross a line on the "expectation of privacy" spectrum.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, gps, privacy, surveillance