Careful What You Post, the FBI Has More of These

jamie writes "A comment posted to a website got its author's *friend's* car an unwanted aftermarket addon. The Orion Guardian ST820, a GPS tracking device, was attached to the underside of the car by the FBI. No warrant required. The bugged friend, a college student studying marketing, was apparently under suspicion because he's half-Egyptian. As Bruce Schneier says, 'If they're doing this to someone so tangentially connected to a vaguely bothersome post on an obscure blog, just how many of us have tracking devices on our cars right now ...' The ACLU is investigating." This follows up on our earlier mention of the same student, who turned the tracking device over to the FBI.

Comments

got spyware?

[Gary W. Longsine]

Post to this thread, and be the first person on your block to receive a free GPS tracking device! (The device will be mounted under your car, hidden. Peel slowly, and see!)

Re:got spyware?

[vandelais]

You should attach it next to the one I stuck on Carly Fiorina's campaign bus.

Re:got spyware?

[Jawnn]

Yeah, because the FBI sucks at finding good times to do these things. Good luck with that. They'll shoot you dead before you make it out your front door with your gun. Unless you happen to be that one navy seal who posts on slashdot, you lose in this confrontation.

He's not a Seal, but he's logged about 5,000 hours on Halo II in his mom's basement, and since he's 28 years old now, he could actually buy a firearm. So you shadow-government federal toadies better watch out, man.

Re:got spyware?

[elrous0]

Won't work on me. My car has a special "white man" transmitter. Being of European heritage, my car was by default equipped with a device that signals to cops not to pull me over, to FBI agents that I'm a good American, and to gated communities that I'm okay to let in. The downside is that the signal has damaged my motor cortex skills, meaning I'm a terrible dancer and even more terrible basketball player. But I do get a 10% discount at participating Cracker Barrel restaurants.

This is just paranoid

[Drakkenmensch]

Just because I criticize the US government's homeland policies doesn't mean... hey, what's this big red blinking thing on the underside of my laptop?

I found one

[SnarfQuest]

I found one of those electronic thingeys in my car, with lots of wires plugged into it, so I ripped the sucker out. Then, according to my mechanic, someone stole my ECU, which cost me $300 to replace. And those damn FBI agents also snuck another one of those devices into my car. Talk about your bad luck. I'm off to get rid of this new one, so wish me luck.

Dear FBI

[Jonah Hex]

I am currently seeking an IT position, and have over 35 years experience in Wintel servers, clients, and especially automated rollouts, OS, and application customization. Full resume upon request.

HEX

Muslim Bomb Cell Biological Illuminati President Obama Genius Terrorist Ground Future Star 911 Zero Alien Black Helicopter Tracking Bazinga

Re:Obscurity

[Chris Burkhardt]

That just shows how much more secure Schneier's site is than Reddit.

Re:Operation: Fearstorm

[orphiuchus]

To be fair, they are pretty awful.