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Does Cheap Tech Undermine Legal Privacy Protections?
bfwebster writes "Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor who focuses on legal issues regarding information technology (I own a copy of his book Computer Crime Law) raises an interesting issue about a 2001 Supreme Court decision (Kyllo v. United States) that prohibited police from using a thermal imaging device on a private home without a warrant. (The police were trying to detect excess heat coming from the roof of a garage, as an indication of lamps being used to grow marijuana inside.) The Court made its decision back in 2001 because thermal imaging devices were 'not in general use' and therefore represented a technology that required a warrant. However, Kerr points out that anyone can now buy such thermal imaging devices for $50 to $150 from Amazon, and that they're advertised as a means of detecting thermal leakage from your home. In light of that, Kerr asks, is the Supreme Court's ruling still sound?"
The linked item is not an imager, it's a glorified thermometer. I wish you could get a thermal imager for cheap -- last I checked, they still started in the $3-4K range.
Thermal cameras used by the cops still cost quite a bit. We had one in the Heat & Mass lab in college and you had to give up your drivers license and student ID to borrow it out, and you couldn't even leave the building.
The cheap devices on Amazon just look like non-contact temp sensors with some fancy electronics. If someone was trying to snoop around my house with one of the devices you linked to they'd probably be close enough to hit with a baseball bat.
This is the cheapest I could find however something like this is probably required to do what you're afraid of.
Still a valid question, but the 'cheap technology' isn't quite there yet.
we have this fancy thermal imager that can see through walls like they arn't there. It detects such subtle changes in temperature you can see the entire inside of the house with excellent clarity from a few hundred feet away. Mind you owning this device is illegal because of the potential for abuse we have exception because it is used for fire dept / search & rescue. But in the wrong hands its a scary device like cops cruising the neighbourhood mind you cops tend to break the law more than your average citizen especially when it comes to traffic violations ( one of our local cops constantly brags about taking 10 min to drive what should be 25 min at the speed limit just to go to the next town for a coffee)