Police can plant a GPS tracker on your car, in your driveway, w/o a warrant

[CorvallisBMW]

The 9th Circuit Court ruled yesterday that, since your driveway is readily accessible by the public (barring a gated entry), police can enter your driveway and plant GPS tracking systems on your car without notice and without a warrant.

http://gizmodo.com/5622800/our-worst-nightmares-about-the-government-tracking-us-just-came-true

Discuss.

[ELONZOOOO]

solution: garage

[ethrtyiS]

Actually they can't unless they have viable paper work.

NO they can NOT track you without a scrap of paper. They must still meet DUE PROCESS in order to track you. If you do not understand due process, I suggest you do some hard research.

The only difference between due process, and a warrant, is they need to simply provide that due process was completed in advance to get permission in advance from a judicial party for a warrant to be issued to then collect evidence. This exists because they must enter your PRIVATE space to collect that evidence, and could impede your life and your privacy in so doing. For a car parked on a street, they're not invading your personal space (there's a legal term I'm sure was quoted), and they could also equally FOLLOW YOU (given simply manpower, with nothing other than due process there either). Use of a GPS is simple in place of man labor, but a cop can NOT follow you for more than 5 miles on probable cause alone (in most states) without due process and permission from a superior based on probable cause or an active case, and that must be documented.

You still have to be a party in an active documented case file, and the data collected under due process is still only admissible if a judge later approves. Either way, a judge still has to let the evidence in a court room. Evidence collected without due process is not admissible. GPS data collected must be stores in your case file, not some simple generic database as that is not associated with active case work.

This is NOT a ruling that allows the government to simply collect GPS data and track everyone, it is only permitting the tracking of identified "persons of interest" in an active criminal investigation without a warrant, but still under the "rule of law" and powers granted by the constitution of the federal body and separately of the states.

If you don't know the law, source a legal expert. Its this kind of BS journalism and FUD that ramps up all the paranoid a-holes out there. NO they can not track you just because... Due Process is clearly defined in the constitution.

Now, that said, please cite the source of any legal document in american history explicitly granting a right of privacy. The constitution only grants Life, Liberty, and Property rights under due process protections. Life is pretty well described out as your physical life and freedom, and prevention from things like servitude and forced labor, but nowhere was "personal choice" or "personal privacy" guaranteed in the constitution outside of you choice of creed. There's some supreme court languege that "implied" privacy rights, and a limited test for that case, but the 9th court rightly confirmed that test case does not apply here, and there's much argument over what rights to privacy you really do have as its never been directly challenged, its just something the courts, by nature, steer away from.

If you read this article from www.eff.org, you'll see it says they need a search warrant with probable cause.

[619E30]

That's what a garage is for

[dj01540i6sp]

GPS / Phone tap

Do'nt swet it, This has been happening for over 40 years. But even now they can listen to you crll phone conversations also.

[Erik]

Don't do illegal shit?

[blocke]

solution: garage

While this would stop them from actually placing it on your car, it likely would not stop the unit from obtaining a GPS fix.
I work for a company that makes GPS tracking devices both for consumer and government use. A consumer device would likely lose its GPS fix in a garage, rendering them unable to track you. Thats usually how rats avoid getting their car repo'd.

But Government and military GPS bands are much much stronger and much more accurate. If they already have the tracker on your car, hiding in your garage would do nothing, unless your garage is 5 foot thick concrete.

[N2MYE30]

Don't do illegal shit?

Exactly!

[Kerrath]

Don't do illegal shit?

Laughable solution! needs addendum; "...and get caught?"

[z31maniac]

Don't do illegal shit?

Exactly!

Completely not the point.

[mrsleeve]

Wow really do I have to make my feelings known about this???????????????????

[BraveUlysses]

Don't do illegal shit?

get out

[joshh]

It's always the battle between giving the cops as much power needed to catch the "bad guys" but yet not too much that it violates a person's rights.
You don't have to be the one breaking the law for your rights to be potentially violated. The Cops just need to think you may be involved even if they are totally wrong. It's up to the cops to do investigations correctly.
The real problem is if the criminal pulls off the near perfect crime, they're unlikely to be caught. Yet at the same time the cops just want to nab anyone so they can say they caught the person much of the time.

[ck_taft325is]

Police should be given a bit more slack. And bad Police should be dealt with swiftly and harshly. The higher standard should not be more regulation but entirely more punishment if found to have grossly violated a persons being.

A majority of the red tape is ridiculous. I see the topic being less grossly abused by the individual officer and far more used by the governing powers that may be. It's a scary world we live in, folks. Keep your nose clean and all in all, despite principles, you don't have to really worry about this. While I don't agree, in general I think it's a moot point as this isn't really news.

[e30evolution]

Don't do illegal shit?

yes