GPS tracker placed on students car by FBI

[Big_Jim]

Found this article while reading some tech blogs I go through daily. A California student took his car for an oil change and finds a GPS tracking device attached to his car. Apparently, its legal, and they dont need a warrant to do this.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...acking-device/

[SovXietday]

Not entirely sure how I feel about this. Just one of those things...

1) Totally horrible thing to do to an innocent person.
2) Necessary evil if it leads to a terrorist plot or something.

This post is probably going to get ugly lol.

[jpalamar]

It is on the grey side of legal. Like they said above, a necessary evil. I'd rather have an occassional freedom infringed then be blown up.

Personally, if you doing something shady enough that the FBI feels the need to watch you, there is something wrong with you to begin with.

[Big_Jim]

I knew it would take one of 2 directions when I posted it, but I wanted to hear what everyone here has to say about something like this happening.

[XAlliedYouthX]

I read about that the other day and if I remember correctly I think it was put on the kids car because his dad may have been into some iffy stuff.

[ThePrimerSuspect]

people throw the word "innocent" around too much. just because you have not yet been proven guilty, doesnt mean you are, in fact, innocent. if the FBI was tracking him, im sure they had a valid reason. when i worked in the dealership we had DEA agents in the shop a few times a year looking at navigators for good places to hide these.

[PAFirefighter11]

I've seen local police do this as well. If the car is parked in public, and EVEN in your driveway (with no gate) they can do this. If it's garaged they obviously can't, but at some point you're most likely going to park in a public location and be tracked if they want you.

They have these available to the public, and business owners as well. They vary in price from $50 to thousands of dollars. Track your workers, make sure they aren't speeding, and are where they need to be, etc. They offer ones you can download onto your phone (in case you lose your phone - pretty cool) and ones you can download onto your kid or spouses, etc., phone. Creepy.

[Elliott18t]

saw this on reddit it. Its ****ed up.

[Chris B.]

Its probably quite a bit cheaper than having a couple federal law enforcement agents follow someone to track their movements. I'm sure it saves the agency time and money that they can use for more productive things.

Also, I'm sure they could track him through his cell phone, credit card, ATM, debit card, etc... use and get info on his patterns of movement even without the tracking device. Currnt GPS tracking equipment is pretty small form what I have seen. If they used something that big and old, either he was low priority or they are tracking so many people that they are running out of modern equipment to use.

If I found something like that on my car, I'd be tempted to put it on another vehicle or trailer. Maybe a U-haul trailer at a rest stop, 18 wheeler, rental car, park ranger truck, rental car, rental airplane, shipping container, etc...

[AristoSan]

Found innocent = shady

Found guilty = great police work

[JSpecV03]

Originally Posted by Chris B.

Its probably quite a bit cheaper than having a couple federal law enforcement agents follow someone to track their movements. I'm sure it saves the agency time and money that they can use for more productive things.

Also, I'm sure they could track him through his cell phone, credit card, ATM, debit card, etc... use and get info on his patterns of movement even without the tracking device. Currnt GPS tracking equipment is pretty small form what I have seen. If they used something that big and old, either he was low priority or they are tracking so many people that they are running out of modern equipment to use.

If I found something like that on my car, I'd be tempted to put it on another vehicle or trailer. Maybe a U-haul trailer at a rest stop, 18 wheeler, rental car, park ranger truck, rental car, rental airplane, shipping container, etc...

it shrinks the chances of the followed person making the agents that are following them. if you make them and know people are watching you, then what good has watching this person or persons done? its also a safer way to follow someone incase shooting or something happends, however, there is no to be sure that the person the federal goverment is watching is in the car that their tracing. theirs pros and cons here.

cell phone can be traced by the feds, but as long as the user has taken out the battery and sim card, the phone is useless. it wont triangulate off of towers or can its gps be pinged for your location. but the credit card/atm method is ok, but its not the best. and often times that person is long gone before they can get there to ask questions and what not.

basically to sum it up, in my honest opinion, the federal government just dosnt randomly pick people to watch. their has to be a connection somewhere to warrent the investigation. granted people have rights, its the federal government, they can basically do whatever they want with or without reason.

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted by JSpecV03

cell phone can be traced by the feds, but as long as the user has taken out the battery and sim card, the phone is useless. it wont triangulate off of towers or can its gps be pinged for your location.

Unless the person was up to no good, I'm sure 99.99% of the people out there don't do this to their cell phone. If they did, then it definitely would look suspicious and warrant other tracking methods.

[OverBoostedEvo]

After reading the article it sounds like there was many reasons behind there trackin, they definetly arent just randomly doin it with all the info they had on him in the article..

[james_ls]

There's got to be MUCH more to this story than any of us will EVER know.

It's not some "random innocent" student...they are using the word student to make you mentally think of a certain type of person.

Typical media bull****.

HOWEVER, like posted above...regardless of the situation that we wont know...

Found Innocent = Shady and Rights-Infringing

Found Guilty = Technology Working Well

[JSpecV03]

Originally Posted by Chris B.

Unless the person was up to no good, I'm sure 99.99% of the people out there don't do this to their cell phone. If they did, then it definitely would look suspicious and warrant other tracking methods.

i agree and most people dont know that about phones, but regaurdless, if they want you, their gonna find you.

and james your right, cuz the goverment tells us one thing and what is actually happening/happened are two differant things. we the general public will never know.
while in the service, i came across that fact just about everyday when i was in, and was told about things that were listed classifeid materail about matters overseas and hearing what the media and others had to "say" about the same incidents or whatever were 100 percent differant

[boostjunky]

Its a slippery slope. As Mr. Horse said. "No sir, I don't like it."

[420sx]

Big brother is always watching.

[superskaterxes]

i just found out that your ez-pass statement is public record so anyone can find out exactly where you been going and when!

[JSpecV03]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes

i just found out that your ez-pass statement is public record so anyone can find out exactly where you been going and when!

Really? How did you find this out?

[FocusDude]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes

i just found out that your ez-pass statement is public record so anyone can find out exactly where you been going and when!

I hope it's not public info. available to everyone. Theres more then just which exits you got on/off on the statement I believe. But I prefer to use cash.

I have no problem with it, unless it happens to me. But my car rarely moves-