Slashdot Mirror
Man Stalks Ex-girlfriend With GPS
grouchomarxist writes "According to this article at CNN: Police arrested a man they said tracked his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts by attaching a global positioning system to her car. Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellular phone to the woman's car on August 16 with a motion switch that turned on when the car moved, transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite. Information was then sent to a Web site that allowed Gabrielyan to monitor the woman's location." A ruling last year stated that police need a warrant to track individuals in a similar fashion.
I need to get one for my girlfriend's car. Alright, she's not my girlfriend, yet, but she will be once I'm able to track her 24/7.
I kept getting "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." ;-)
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Surprised there isn't a movie about this yet. Another Fear dot com on the way?
See, this is exactly why we need fuel cells in our phones...I mean...eh...this is just wrong and illegal...
Trying to figure out where his ex-girlfriend kept her car...
Well, this is hardly news to us on
No doubt that'll change over the next year.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
lorf
help us out here sparky.
#!/usr/bin/english
It actually sounds like a neat project, just a sketchy application. I wonder if its legal to attach one to, say, your child's car. Perhaps make the sensor a bit less sensitive, so it only broadcasts a signal after an impact-type shock.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
All this and he couldn't figure out how to hook the thing up to the car battery?
This has also been covered briefly on Engadget and more thoroughly on BoingBoing, where links to the original article and the District Attorney's report are provided.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
"transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite." WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? ...Why does the News continually report GPS technology as sending data TO a satellite - GPS receivers are completely passive.
Either our media/news is completely ignorant, or they assume that all their readers are completely ignorant.
The only PT Boat Journal on the web: http://www.PT171.org
>The woman learned how Gabrielyan was following her when she discovered him under her car attempting to change the cell phone's battery, police said.
This is a perfect metaphor for the 21 century... Hyped futuristic capabilities with obvious and forgotten shortcomings. 12v line from the power system, anyone?
If you are going to be compulsively obsessed to the exclusion of all else, at least sweat the details.
The ______ Agenda
Hmm Guess this is the upgrade to the little black book. :)
I abhor the fact that he stalked her, but I admire the way he did it.
The woman learned how Gabrielyan was following her when she discovered him under her car attempting to change the cell phone's battery, police said.
Um, yeah, I was just doing an oil change officer!
After a bad breakup with my car insurance company recently, they're doing the same
Any instructions on how to set one of these up? Sounds like the only improvement necessary was a hookup to the car battery. Duh! Also, don't phones these days have GPS or something like it built in, that locates the phone based on triangulation with cell towers? If you used that you could do away with the GPS unit altogether, and just need a motion switch to trigger a program on the phone that texts the location - or just make it transmit at intervals.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Doesn't make anything a good idea. Take nuclear weapons, computer virii, adware as examples ..
you can get it here
Dozens? After about the first six she should have gotten a restraining order.
If any hot girls out there would like to stake me, that would be super.
Hey, combine this with the little black boxes Progressive Insurance has been pushing, and you too can have your insurance revoked in real-time while driving!
Laughing On Rolling Floor.
;)
That's what happens when you read posts like this one while trying to tie up your yacht at the dock in the middle of Hurricane Frances. I'd provide a link but I can't seem to find any clips from that video on the Web. If you've seen any news in the last 36 hours, you'll know what video I'm talking about, though.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
Since there are a few companies coming out with devices that track the location of items with an RFID tag on them, you could do almost the same thing. Sure, you probably wouldn't have a website to go to, but, you could certainly drive around with one of the base station thingies looking for a signal.
Then you don't have to replace batteries either.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
See this archive on The Smoking Gun from a man arrested for doing the same thing in 2002. I guess someone else just took the hint and tried it again 2 years later.
;)
"Meet Paul Seidler. The 42-year-old Wisconsin man was just busted on charges that he conducted a high-tech stalking campaign directed at a former girlfriend. Kenosha police allege that Seidler placed a Global Positioning System tracking device under the hood of the woman's car and began monitoring her movements."
Hey, it's a slow weekend, so I think a near-dupe of not-so-cutting-edge news is forgivable
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Because I know this girl named Buffy that loves to stake guys.
Phoning home each minute with a new fix? Was he with Verizon? I understand that they have a plan where they give 1000 free stalking minutes each month. Yes, the GPS receiver is included.
All I know is it couldn't have happened to a better state. Anybody tracking how many spammers have been killed in the hurricanes?
Stalking is still stalking here. A new way to stalk doesn't always mean that the stalking is unprosecutable. I do have to ask exactly how the cellphone can be affordably rigged to call every minute. That must be expensive. Either that, or it is another detail the media has gotten wrong.
I've thought of that too, I wonder if spam will go down if Boca Raton's trailer parks get blown into the gulf ?
...is so important. There are LEGITIMATE REASONS to not want to have a tracking device in your car, not just tinfoil hat paranoia. Sure there may be "privacy protections" but keep in mind that a company's privacy is only as strong as the minimum wage employee who's bribed $100 to let a stalker have some info.
Every time I read one of these stories of a guy wigging out because his girlfriend dumped him, I always think, "Hey, Chief, do ya think she was on to something?" I mean, girl dumps boy. Boy stalks her using GPS. Maybe she was onto something in dumping him?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
It is not the first time i hear/read about problem of stalking in US. I wonder, if it is a problem in other countries. I must try very hard to recall any such cases in my country (Lithuania) and I remember 2-3 that became known publicly and 1-2 I know by personaly, IN TOTAL 3-5 cases.
:)
I've heard from ladies, who visited Turkey that attention from turkish guys is tiresome but it is not stalking.
Is Stalking "polular" in other contries?
Geeks are 100% dedicated to a relationship and will go that extra mile.
Oh, and also: Phear the g33k!
Once you see what his ex-girlfriend did to his monitor when he told her it's over you'll understand why he needed to know well in advance if she was heading to his place for yet another constructively destructive discussion about why he does not want to marry her.
Just so you know, that used to be a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u before they broke up.
Yet it is illegal for a private citizen to follow someone in public. What is with the double standard?
I bet he could send her a Short Message Service too!
A better installation would have just wired one of those in-car phone chargers to the car battery.
What's the URL for HOWTO: Track your girlfriend by mobile phone and GPS?
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I doubt the GPS part would have led to a conviction in Cali standing by itself. Of course, the GPS will haelp make the case for the stalking, but wouldn't likely be illegal if that were all he had done.
Pretty scary, huh?
p.s. - Can you techies tell me how to hook one of these up?
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
I better get it off my GF's car soon
Although the article said it was a "cellular phone," depending on just how determined / obsessed this guy was, it could have been a satellite phone. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.
He's not a very good stalker if he was under her car changing the battery to the cell-phone!
I mean, he could of spent a little time and hooked it up to the car battery (it's possible) and on TOP of that, he could have used a phone that auto-accepts incoming calls when a hands-free headset is used, and just short the HF plug-in spot to make the phone think one is plugged in.. and
whalla, you have a tracker/voice-listener thingy-ma-jigger!
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
there are companies out there that will put a gps device in your car as part of an after-theft car location service...
The government has certain rights and responsibilities that individuals do not. They also arrest and execute criminals. If you did the same, you'd be a vigilante and you'd likely end up in jail yourself. Generally, these cameras are used to monitor behaviors and not individuals, and that's a big difference. Are people speeding? Are people committing crimes? It's not "What is John Doe doing?" As the summary blurb points out, the government needs a warrant to do this sort of GPS monitoring on specific persons.
The counter argument to that example is usually this discussion only comes up when someone is caught with evidence like a bloody knife and the cop arrests him. His lawyer will try and argue this guy had a reasonable expectation of privacy and the evidence should be thrown out.
I've yet to see where someone lost their privacy and complained, but had no damages to sue. What are all the tin foil hat wearers (not to say you're one of them) afraid of?
If so, you're under arrest.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
as I remember, 2 or 3 years ago, just if I had a link handy... just too simple, to be rare
Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellular phone to the woman's car on August 16 with a motion switch that turned on when the car moved, transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite.
Although this is possible I dont think its very likely given the following.
1. A cell phone does not have enough power or the proper antenna to transmit a signal to a satellite.(unless its something like iridium which i highly doubt)
2. There arent many cell phone with TRUE GPS. Most have aGPS or something similar which triangualtes your positions using cell phone towers not a satellite.
attaching a global positioning system to her car.
He created and attached an entire global positioning system of satellites to her car? Now that's impressive! I wonder how she didn't notice...
1) Find a stalker
2) Remove tracking system; sell motion sensor and cell phone
3) Profit!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
And people ask me why I don't have a car.
This got me wondering, though. What if, for example, I was to do something like this to my wife's car? I own the car, right? So I should be able to modify it (within safety concerns of course) how I see fit.
Not that I'm saying I'd stalk my own wife, or anything. I'm just wondering what makes stalking one's girlfriend fundamentally different than stalking, say, one's wife.
"Information was then sent to a Web site that allowed Gabrielyan to monitor the woman's location."
Link?
Man GPSes ex-Stalk with Girlfriend.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate gory=4668&item=5717668160&rd=1
In today's world women have all the rights, men are just "guilty" of everything.
He probably was just trying to figure out who was the other guy? Poor man women have it all!
Whereas girls won't let the geek go "the last 6 inches" :-)
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Based on some of the news reports the device used was likely some Nextel GPS enabled phone, like the i58sr with the AtlasTrack 2.0 software and service provided by Networks in Motion.
Phone
Software
Service
Not connecting the phone to the car battery becomes less suprising when you realize the solution in available at the mall.
Everyone is so paranoid (arguably with justification) about 'big brother' government using advances in technology to bring on negative consequences...what about your everday neurotic ex? I think this could be broaching an interesting topic never really discussed before (that I've seen.)
I know nothing
They also arrest and execute criminals.
No civilized governments do that. Civilized governments arrest and prosecute criminals. Then according to what fits the bill best, they fine, jail or give them proper psychological treatment.
Do you live in some barbaric third world country where torture and imprisonment without fair trials are still part of the legal system too?
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Yea, now I have an RFID chip from the Swarthmore College CS department. I don't need to wear it, but it allows me to unlock the lab doors. One of my friends complained about it, so I told him he should stick it to his right hand or forehead :-)
Yea, RFID is handy, but I know it will be abused some day. I know I will be scared when RFID replaces credit/debit cards.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
All GPS receivers need to see the birds and most of the external antennas I have seen are fairly obvious. You can't just take a $99 etrek and not give it full sight of the birds. It no workie.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Cry me a river. If you take someone's life, your own is forfeit.
No double standard is evidenced in this story. Simply monitoring someone in public is not normally illegal.
Specifically in California where this occurred there is an eight part test to qualify as stalking and a threat must be made. Is there a crime of stalking/cyberstalking?
There is probably more chance that you could get in trouble for attaching a cell phone to someone's car, especially if you connected it to the battery.
Peoples positions are going to be the next big commodity unless something is done about it fast. Companies are already dying to know who you are, what you buy, what you watch etc and the logical next step is where you are.. phone companies could be the first to sell it, if the law says its ok, they have a pretty good idea of your location almost 24/7. Now thats stalking! Just make sure your country has some sort of data-protection/privacy act and learn how to use and abuse it!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I once thought "it would be nice if they minituarized a locatable transmiter so much that I could slip one into my expensive gadgets (starting with my camera) so I could locate it if it was lost or stolen." The person to which I mentioned this pointed out "but then, people could easily track someone else by slipping such a device into someone's pocket." Unfortunately, this will happen, as this article demonstrates.
Now think of the capabilities these technologies gave the Nazi propagandists of the 1930s and 1940s.
There's a dark side to every new technology. For a small class of people, technological advances will always represent only fantastic new ways to wage war, or to harrass and murder their fellow man.Buy mobile/cell phone, sign up for a mobile/cell phone location service. When they send you a sms/text message to authourise the service text back to confirm.
Hey presto you now have a trackable phone.
Login onto their tracking website to keep tabs on the location of the phone all done via cell tower trianglation, it's simpler and less precise than gps but good enough for most general uses.
E.g. http://www.verilocation.com/
On the flip side, maybe his punishment could fit the crime: fit him with a GPS collar and allow people to stalk him (or at least let his ex know where he is currently stalking her from).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
That was a ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court (the state I live in) and I remember reading about it. This ruling has no effect in the other 49 states or on the Feds. While the ruling may influence other judges, the Washington State Constitution generally has more citizen friendly rules on privacy and related matters than the U. S. Constitution or most state constitutions, which may narrow the applicability of the reasoning in this case to other judicial venues.
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
1) Find .... (just the same)
2) deside what to do depending on how the victim looks like (and the stalker, if known)
3) have fun anyways, profit optional
this will be able to fit into a glowing ping-pong ball and crammed up your nose.
Would this be enough to prevent him to have a boyfriend?
This guy was quite wealthy too. Half a million on bail + all the money to put-together all this equipment, not to mention the time for stalking...
Parents should use this to track the whereabouts of their children. Define alert perimeters and voila, no need for adult supervision.
Lojack doesn't use Satellites for tracking, they use ground-based antennas http://www.lojack.com/what/see_how_lojack_works.cf m
! Brett%20&radar=***)
As has been stated in other threads, GPS receivers are passive.
You can do similar things with ameteur radio (Brett Neilson's presentation at Defcon covered this -- track him at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=kc7iib
Who will then kill the man who killed the criminal? And who will then kill him? You?
"Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends."
Someone knew what he was talking about.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
This story sounds suspicious to me. Was the guy a tech geek, or did he have a girlfriend? You can't have it both ways.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
Anybody who would do this to an ex is nuts. Sane people forget the bad relationships as fast as possible.
Criminal charges in CA may or may not have been fully explored at this time. The DA or USA can put the matter before a Grand Jury and revise the indictment. CA has a "right to privacy" incorporated in the state constitution. I suspect that there are federal actions available for creating an unauthorized radio transmission station.
On the civil side:
(1) Trespass to Chattels (tampering with the car)
(2) Intrusion into Seclusion (electronic tail)
(3) Invasion of Privacy (where car is parked on private property)
(4) Defamatory publication of embarrassing private facts (the web page)
(5) Tortious interference with business or business expectancy (tracking business contacts)
(6) Prima Facie Tort (It's just plain wrong)
(7) Tortious exposure to toxic/noxious substance (unauthorized RF)
(8) Civil conspiracy (where somebody else helped install / build the device)
Why automate the tracking of an ex? To do her harm. What other reason could there be? If the guy wanted to shoot up the gal's male friends or screw over her business contacts he would have the information necessary. There is nothing "harmless" about this outrage. I think the guy needs 30 days in the electric chair followed by a quick dunk in the pacific near a few nurse sharks.
However, an injunction prohibiting his use of the technology forever and a good long litigation followed by a judgment that he can never pay off would serve well. Also, a web page with his video depo playing over and over might be a real deterrent to the next wizard who wants to play dirty with their toys.
So what kind of legal liability will there be for these insurance companies if their lovely GPS tracking systems are hacked? You know it's going to happen - they don't I'm sure - but when it does, are THEY insured against the consequences?!
So help me God, I'll be the first in line for a lawsuit if that level of my privacy is breached.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
has only recently become a major problem. People seem to have too much time on their hands and too crazy thoughts in their ead.
Do they have an article with more exact instructions on how to do this?
And it doesn't bother them.
I've talked with teenagers about what it means when their cell phone has GPS. They're not bothered by having their location reported. They like the idea of knowing where all their friends are. Then they'd know who's nearby, and could hook up. It's a feature.
A la MPAA/RIAA/etc, a perfectly legit technology is used for illegal purposes by an idiot. So let's pass some laws to make GPS ownership by unlicensed individuals illegal.
Or maybe an annual, renewable license to use the device, but the device remains the property of Garmin, etc.
<anti-*AA rant
But so I could _NOT_ run into her.
I kept running into her with my new girlfriend (obtained after the breakup with the wife). It was awkward, to say the least...
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
No. Your point being?
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Double standard? Wha wha waa???
Private citizens don't get search warrants. They can't sentence you jail. They aren't allowed to drive a tank down the streets. The can't order people to show up to court. (etc, etc, etc)
I want to know what you possibly mean by double standard? You're asking why it's ok for police to watch a person closely when investigating a crime, possibly with a warrant, but it's not ok for private citizens to do it?
Also do not forget that surveillance cameras are (primary) not for tracking people moving around-- they are to see what is happening where they are watching. If a crime is spotted in an old camera log it's only evidence, not big brother. Do you think if any given city installs X thousand cameras they will actively be watching each one following people? Cops would use this instead of GPS on the car, why?
Unless you can conclusively show me that police are allowed to follow someone for their own private agenda in such a way that a private citizen is not, I do not understand what you are talking about.
Restraining order is just a piece of paper. When the chips are down, a piece of paper won't stop a determined and obsessive stalker. Glock 26 works better as a deterrent.
Yes we understand privacy is important. However you see in this story that in the face of someone who doesn't want to play by the rules. Privacies enduring existance becomes much harder without everyone complaining about how inconvienced they are. The story also shows us that you don't need governments or corporations to be unsafe (lacking privacy). Maybe we should all wear tin-foil hats when around each other.
Is it illegal to hire a private investigator to track someone? What is the real difference?
The best use of a GPS system besides using it to find your way around is to tie it to a wireless network sniffer. Drive around in your car and when the sniffer picks up something, it can trigger the GPS software to record where that is, what type of network, the network strength and what day and time so you can estimate how stale the information is. If you want free internet, just get mapping software to find a route from where you are now to the nearest free wireless network.
Can't anyone read?
Here's a good way to put GPSr's in a bad light. Don't even read the article and make up some shit on it.
You must have a lot of courage. Making a gynecologist believe that you are a woman sounds scary.
"Hey, what is that?"
"Dunno. Never saw one on any of my patients before. Remove it."
And every trip you take...
Restraining orders I'll break...
Don't you try and fake...
I AM WATCHING YOU
"Hey, what is that?"
"Dunno. Never saw one on any of my patients before. Remove it."
*holds up insurance card*
Got it!.
What's funniest is that when he tells people he is a "journalist" (and he does alll the time), he doesn't understand why they laugh at him.
I'm sorry, but this is fuckheaded. I'm not a big death penalty supporter, but if you cannot see the moral difference between a murder and an execution after a trial, your brain simply is not functioning properly.
There's fine arguments on both side of the issue, but anyone who brings up this moral equiavalnce angle needs to re-evaluate their critical thinking skills.
So this is the killer app for GPS?
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
It's interesting; I'm generally anti death-penalty too, but the recent events in Russia (hostage-takers killing several hundred schoolchildren) seem to justify an exception. Thoughts?
Moral difference?
C'mon now, surely if you're employing this kind of terminology you're smart enough to know that morality is just a set of rules that we impose upon ourselves as part of our need to belong to a collective group?
So you may see a moral difference else between murder and a state-approved killing, but someone else may not.
Tricky isn't it.
Oh and I'm not a bleeding-heart liberal - I just think depriving someone of their liberty for the rest of their life is a better punishment for someone who has taken a life than just killing them as well.
Of course - then we have the question of how comfortable a life sentence should be...
If trials were always fair, the world a nice place to live and nobody ever lied, the death penalty might be a realistic, but imho somewhat crude/barbaric option. Unforunately that is not the case.
Read this, text if you have the time and ability. Then tell me again what the difference is between murder and an execution after a trial.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Because stalkers often target celebrities, who happen to be more important than the rest of us. They would have gotten the upgrrade to exclude poor, unimportant normal people, but laws cost so much as it is these days, who can afford to buy them 'as shown'?
Be careful what you wish for...
"Obsessed much?" and "whhheeeeeeeooooo"
One night while doing some shift work (6PM-6AM), one of my co-workers went home for "lunch" at 2AM. He found that his wife wasn't home and, worse, had left their 4 year old son unattended. This was the second time that had happened, so he decided to investigate. The next time we were working night shifts, he put a GPS under a blanket that happened to be in the back of their hatchback. Twelve hours later (again after his wife hadn't been home at "lunchtime") he retrieved the GPS. He followed the recorded track around, and then along with a few friends, staked out the route the next time we were on mids. One of them spotted her in a parking lot and videotaped her from a distance for the next few hours. He contacted the cops (this being an military base and overseas) and turned over the tape. The police investigated, determined she was running a prostitution ring, and had her deported back to her country of origin. My co-worker was able to both successfuly divorce her and get custody of the child.
As far as I am aware, none of these illicit "GPS tracking" devices actually use GPS to do any of their tracking. These devices have no GPS receivers and don't receive any GPS signals. But I wouldn't blame shoddy reporting in the press, because the manufacturers of these devices blatantly false advertise their products.
The reason why they're not using GPS should be pretty obvious to anyone who has ever used a GPS device. GPS devices need to be pointed towards the sky in order to read the GPS satellite signals. Without line of sight access to the sky, GPS devices just won't work.
And since law enforcement (or stalkers) really don't want the people they're tracking to know they're being tracked, GPS devices are of no use to them. Even the smallest GPS device would be pretty obvious once placed in a functional location on a car. The devices would have to be installed in plain view to be able to perform any tracking.
Since the real need is for devices that can be easily hidden in or under a car, they need to connect to a transmission system that is not line of sight. Each and of these I've researched actually use cellular phone networks to triangulate the target position. Sure, these devices might report that position correlated to the GPS coordinate map. They could just as easily report the location in longitude and latitude, but since they report it in GPS numbers, they call them "GPS trackers". In my mind, every advertisement calling these devices "GPS Trackers", are complete and total lies.
An added benefit to these devices exclusive use of the cellular networks would make it seem damn simple to protect oneself from them. A simple, cheap and easy to find cell phone jammer (available over the net from Canada or Israel) should make all of these trackers totally useless.
Or you might get one of those nutcases like the story is about...
By the time you find out, its hard to get rid of them.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What is this girlfriend you speak of?
one provision recently implemented in federal legislation dictates that all cellphones sold in the USA since january 1st 2004 have GPS systems installed in them.
.
this is ostensibly so that when you dial 911 the police can locate you. in reality, any such phone's location can be polled as long as it is turned on and in range of a cellular tower.
i have a motorola/verizon 8300(?) which displays "aGPS" upon startup . .
Ask Me About... The 80's!
It's not illegal for a private citizen to follow someone in public (in the absence of a restraining order). What's illegal is to crawl under someone's car and attach things to it, and more importantly in this case, to make threats that you will kill that someone. It's not a case of privacy violation but of indimidation. (the tracking device was to facilitate "running into" the stalkee at various public places)
Another difference between this case and security cameras/RFID paranoia is that security cameras and RFID tags are generally used openly, while the entire point of this guy's tracking system was to surreptitiously monitor his target. You can be against that sort of deceit without believing in a right of public privacy.
If you don't have damages, why would you complain? Why would it make the news?
The FBI was tracking MLK and even harrassing him. What about that?
What am I afraid of? At the worst, political blackmail on a large scale.
Everyone has somthing to hide. Imagine a scenario where those who go against the powers that be will be outed and exposed, just like in the Soviet Union. Everyone had a skeleton in their closet. In the USSR, it was only outed if you did the politically wrong thing. Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" has a nice description of this on a personal level near the end. It only has to happen if a person is likely to come into a position of power. Everyone else's files are just "insurance."
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I wish I was his girlfriend, because some stupid punks stole my car yesterday. Man, I would love to find out who it was and where he is.
I'm sure lots of people would pay for this technology. Geeks or otherwise.
Mathematics is not a crime.
I was mistaken. I didn't realize it. Thank you for your insight. Everyone has a certain personal expectation of privacy to some point.
"they fine, jail or give them proper psychological treatment."
Or execute them. An eye for a fucking eye. Fuck psychobabble treatment attempts.
Uhhh I guess. Good eye good eye! I'll try to keep that in mind next time I STALK MY EX WITH GPS.
In the story, the stalker was discovered by the victim when the stalker was found under the victim's car replacing the battery on the cell phone that was attached to the GPS device.
I guess somebody will now complain that the next revolution in battery technology will see the downside as being able to aid stalkers.
sigh.
a) Not get caught. Duh.
b) Wite it up to a car battery
c) Not need to have to do it in the first place
d) If they reall, really needed to, wouldn't track the car, but track the cellphone. (easier/cheaper/harder to trace i.e swap sim, cover tracking legic tracking costs, redirect number, ask. I will tell you how.)
e) Give up on her, beacuse clearly such a perfect specimen of manhood could have any woman he chose...
f) Jump into the nearest river and remove himself from the gene pool.
The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made. (Marx)
Third world? Do you even know what goes on in a prison in the US?
since we're on the subject of what people would do in bad breakup situtations with technology...
this is another example you would all enjoy. i just couldn't laugh my head off watching it.
psycho girl
my blog
Wow. Never expected that on Slashdot. lol.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
No, it's nice for people who want news, not history.
/. membership permanently?
Slashdot's slogan needs to be changed. Yeah, it's still stuff that matters, but it's definitely not "news". How about, "It's news to us!"
Google's Sci/Tech news is a much better source for the stuff we nerds care about.
BTW, how does one kill his
An eye for a fucking eye.
"An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." --Ghandi
Cheers
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
Even Ghandi was wrong every once in a while. That quote doesn't even make sense in the context of the original meaning of the law.
>Celebrities more important than the rest of us
More important says who?
You know, if it were not for this article, I very well might have forgotten to read my ex-girlfriend's email tonight...
(For informational purposes only)
1. Buy car power adapter (12V) for that cell phone.
2. Take apart cigarette lighter box thing. Save the circuit board with the voltage regulator on it.
3. Attach wire to the positive (+) input (the part that was attached to the tip of the cigarette lighter plug). This wire will go to the battery. Maybe attach either a alligator clip or some kind of pin that can stick through any existing power wire (follow one from the battery, they commonly use red insulation for +12V).
4. Attach a short wire and an alligator clip to the negative (-) input. This can attach anywhere to the car chassis. Try to make a good connection. A good connection will make the device more reliable.
5. Hide the thing so the victem won't find it (consider painting it black).
(I am not endorsing this kind of behavior at all).
My other first post is car post.
Isn't stalking and threatening definately not one of your rights? And it isn't even occurring online, except when he connects to the phone to get the GPS info. Enlighten me, please.
My other first post is car post.
Game over man! This is the best statement someone has ever uttered on this website. Mind you there's only about 8 women who will read it. . .
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
Real Men(TM) use the fine handguns put out by Magnum Research.
.357 Mag up to .50AE; their BFR [Biggest Finest Revolver] line goes all the way up to .450 Marlin, packing an insane 3500ft-lbs at the muzzle...now THAT'S protection!
They make the legendary Desert Eagle automatics,
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
It should be acceptably comfortable. Deliberately inducing suicide gains nothing over just killing them.
I have a friend who had reason to believe his wife was cheating on him. He owned her car, put a GPS on it, and tracked it to the house of a friend where she stayed over night. She said she was going to be at a seminar... and later confessed.
It was something useful, and heartbreaking at the same time, and it was all perfectly legal since he owned the car.
It's scary but this is what relationships face now... You can google your mate and find their high school photo or arrest record. I don't like it... but I admit using tools like this out of curiousity... Anyone else have stories?
"Ghandi took my IT job." -- Me
Cheers,
Fucksl4shd0t
Like what I said? You might like my music
Or is this mod humor?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
get a bunch of gps units and plant them on all the cop cars in my city(I live in a smaller city). Oh my god that would kick ass.
*speeding down main drag
*hears a blip from script that beeps when cop is ahead but still out of sight
*slow down or turn
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
Of course as with all cloak and dagger things, the good schemes are never caught , unless there's a coincidence or something.
Being caught is what seperates the Really Good from the l33t h4xors.
The good ones are never caught (defining good as in "never being caught")
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Ha, ha, ha, what a MACHO dipshit you seem to be.
Do you really expect a woman to carry around a big bore handgun that weighs a ton?
What a loser...
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
It actually sounds like a neat project, just a sketchy application. I wonder if its legal to attach one to, say, your child's car.
If you think that your child isn't mature enough to be alone you shouldn't let him drive a car.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
Dude, where's my ex?
...although I enjoyed some of the jokes here, I must admit that the "fear" and the concern of people wanting more privacy and the protection of it are right...
how the h*ll did he manage to get that information?
he used GPS? but the mobile is communicating with the mobile-antennas...isnt it?
so, if he is able to get her signal (or at least the one of the mobile) does that mean every single person on planet earth can be tracked by everybody else easily?
I dont know...but it will be a hard time to explain me how not everybody is able to do so, after that...gentleman...was capable of stalking in such a manner.
Guantanamo Bay anybody?
Last time I checked, GPS doesn't transmit... much less to a satellite.
Neither do cellular phones. In fact, if this guy actually tracked his girlfriend with GPS - WHERE HELL DID HE PUT THE GPS ANTENNA?
You'd think the girlfriend would notice a black plastic pancake on her car... because this guy sure as hell didn't put the antenna under/in the car... even TREES block GPS data, much less metal cars.
So, I seriously doubt this guy used GPS at all. More likely he used the cellular locator service some companies offer. GPS is something totally different.
Who will then kill the man who killed the criminal? And who will then kill him? You?
That's just the sort of idiocy to be expected from slashdot. By your logic, I suppose when a copper arrests someone he should be arrested for false imprisonment, and whoever arrested him should be arrested for false imprisonment, and so on. If you're going to debate capital punishment, at least do it honestly rather than with fallacies.
Chainsaw romance
-- Using the preview button since 2005
There are several cheap frequency counters you can get for general purpose use. They will tell you if anything is broadcasting a radio signal in the area (they usually pick the strongest source), and it will tell you what frequency it's being broadcast on, so you can usually figure out what's going on.
Isn't there the risk reporting on this kind of thing that every no-hoper creepy b*****d with some tech savvy will go- "Oh look, now I can be both Cape Fear AND James Bond at the same time." Copy cats will follow.
Clearly she has a boyfriend whose trust in her she interprets as indifference
As most girls do. Men and women handle trust in another way I guess. Movies are made about this issue, such as Mepris (Contempt), with BB for instance.
Z
I'd like to hide one of those cellphones into my car as low-cost a theft-prevention measure. What's the cellphone in question?
I mean come on, if only she would haev taken him back and never left his sight again he wouldn't have been FORCED to to this. She really needs to STOP getting a life!
No civilized governments do that.
Really?
If she was using trains and busses all the time, it would be a lot harder to track her, now wouldn't it. I might not notice a cell phone taped under the hood of my car, but I think I would notice if there was a cell phone shoved up my ass (but I'm a sensitive guy, so who knows).
Of course, this is nearly impossible in 99% of america (outside of NYC, Frisco, and Chicago), since basically zero public transport exists. I believe one of the keys to privacy is getting people out of their 2 ton metal boxes and into the public itself.
-Dave
6th Street Radio @ddombrowsky
Did you perchance miss the part where the entity putting the privacy-invading device on the car was an individual ?
A black-box for recording "flight" data would be under gov supervision. This guy couldn't be.
As to your "hypothetical". You're going to bribe some minimum wage jockey to give you positioning data all day long, in real time?
Straw, just straw.
If it's me and a terrorist, I'd rather we were both blind than just me.
*Sigh*
My whole point was that imo, a government that on a regular basis kills it's own citizens has no right to call themselves "civilized".
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Nope.
According to me a police officer should have the right to arrest people breaking the law. But, as you might have noticed, I am no big fan of capital punishment and in my opinion people who kills others on orders from the "state" or "government" are as much criminals as the ones they are ordered to kill. In my book two fatal wrongs doesn't equal one right.
You see, I think killing someone is such an awful act that it is everyone's responsibility to refuse to do so, regardless of who is giving the order. That, imo, makes anyone who orders or carry out the execution of a murderer as much a murder as the murderer himself.
If there are laws against killing your fellow man, then, yes, according to me, they should be given the same punishment as the original killer, i.e. be killed.
Needless to say, if you read my previous comments, that is definately not what I really want.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Some nutjob actively tracking your car is ridiculous, though.
Lets put it another way - if a member of your family killed someone else, would you want the government to kill them, or to try and help them? Yeah... it's strange how right-wing views crumble when it's someone you love in need of state help, isn't it?
It's "Et voila", not whalla. Why do so many people have problems with that? :-P
I'm generally a nice guy and I, ah, get around a lot. Liking sex does not equal being a bad guy.
Xenu loves you!
My point is that civilized (however subjective that word may be) governments do execute individuals.
I don't get what all the fuss is about, I have these things installed on at least a 12 future girlfriend's cars.
Holy mother of god, since apparently you are unable to understand his point, let me end this misery: he's saying the government of Texas cannot be considered civilized.
Stalkers target whoever they want... you only hear about stalkers who target celebs because the news talks more about them then anything important.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
Even Ghandi was wrong every once in a while. That quote doesn't even make sense in the context of the original meaning of the law.
Who says "the law" is right?
Cheers
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
"Ghandi took my IT job." -- Me
:)
LOL
Don't blame the Indians for US corporate initiatives.
Cheers
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
sheesh, i SAID Real MEN...
:D
and yes, i realize bigass guns like the BFR are fired two-fisted (even then, i don't see how a 450 Marlin wont snap your wrists and dent your forehead), and i don't really expect a woman to tote one of those around. my s&w 660 9mm would be a much better choice, duh.
myself personally, i pack a 6" 357 Mag full of 158gr JHPs...it's a bit of a pain in the wrist one-handed but still perfectly manageable; it's almost totally reliable (yes, i know automatics are too, but i like to err on the side of caution) and in a personal defense situation i don't plan on needing more than six rounds, especially with a freakin' hand cannon like that. and yes, i am a macho bastard
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley