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Battle Brews Over FBI's Warrantless GPS Tracking
fysdt writes "The FBI's use of GPS vehicle tracking devices is becoming a contentious privacy issue in the courts, with the Obama administration seeking Supreme Court approval for its use of the devices without a warrant, and a federal civil rights lawsuit targeting the Justice Department for tracking the movements of an Arab-American student. In the midst of this legal controversy, Threat Level decided to take a look at the inside of one of the devices, with the help of the teardown artists at iFixit."
can I stick them under cop cars to know when they are near?
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/dmh5s/does_this_mean_the_fbi_is_after_us/
Damn Republicans passing laws and continuing abuses like this stripping away our rights. . .
Violation of privacy is something committed by a party of equal power to yourself. When government commits injustice, the correct term is oppression. We aren't talking about a nosey neighbor peeking out the window at you, or even a dedicated stalker. We are talking about the organization holding the special right to employ coercion against you as their means -- the most dangerous force that could possibly exist. Needless to say, the situation is completely, utterly different.
I would be checking it right now.
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, we are left...defending our rights from exactly the same threat we faced before. Glad that killing the guy accomplished so much.
Palm trees and 8
Since these days most people carry a GPS unit voluntarily anyway. If you want to watch someone's day-to-day movements, it'd probably be easier to track his cell phone movements than to duct tape a rather obvious unit to the underside of his car.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The linked article shows a woefully out of date tracking device. A much more current version of a gps tracker teardown is shown here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1
I have a rule... "If it comes into my house or my office, I control it.". Since my vehicles come into my house (garage), I control them as well. All I need to do now is find out what the going rate on Ebay is for a GPS tracking device... It's mine baby!
Merely looking at this might be reason enough to get a chance for a close-up personal inspection of your own device.
I love my country but fear my government.
Clearly the solution to finding one of these is to report it as a suspected car bomb. After all, if people can decide that a giant Lite-Brite is a bomb then surely a bunch of metal boxes magnetically attached to a car should merit the same level of attention and freak-out...
The government should mandate the presence of these in all vehicles, and when they become miniaturized enough to the size of a grain of rice, implanted at birth as a prerequisite to being an American citizen. Tracking would be done automatically by a centralized authority and paid for by sharing location information with corporations and advertisers so there is no tax burden to the American people.
So would it be ok to place a GPS tracker on every police car you find, I bet not and while betting I bet that if you were caught trying to put such a thing on a police car you would get shot.
My advise on this is quite simple, if you find a little black box, an antenna and a battery pack on the underside of your car, call the local police and tell them you found exactly what you found under your car, a bundle with wires coming out of it (the battery pack) a black box attached to it (the GPS receiver) and an antenna and your afraid to touch it. Make certain your insurance is paid up.
Call the local news as well, its a bomb threat for certain but this is an economics game, they can't afford to follow everyone with agents so its cheaper to track everyone of interest and sort it out later, make this cost them as much as possible, PR spin isn't cheap, nor is replacing GPS devices that keep 'falling' off the car (rip the wires, leave parts of it on the car) at some point it becomes cheaper to either follow you with Agents, or stop following you.
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
If I found one of these attached to my car I think I'd simply throw it in a box and mail it somewhere. Perhaps to an FBI office on the other side of the country. Let the FBI blindly trace the path it takes through the USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.
Either that or I'd let a dog run around the neighborhood with it.
The government knows everything about you, or can learn it easily because private individuals and corporations gather information that the government can not by law. Then, when the government wants the information, they either hand it over or issue a supeona.
The sad part is that people are deliberately gathering information for the sole purpose of subverting the constitution, many in the name of national security. There was a TV conspiracy show on recently ( a bit off base at times ) that did point out a part of Homeland Security and how they and every day corporations that have nothing to do with security are working together to gather "to protect America". I'm sure if you search for it you'll find the organization, I don't remember than name. But I did down load the membership form and it is a real scare.
Using Americans to violate other American's freedoms and right to privacy. People are so naive these days. Give them a Play Station and let them suck their thumbs and their happy.
So basically the FBI can put one of these on anyone it wants, anywhere. Are you part of a group that it doesn't like? Even if there's no evidence whatsoever that anyone in that group has ever committed a serious crime? Then they can and will follow you around for years with one of these.
On the bright side (there is one), at least if you ever are prosecuted you can show your whereabouts pretty easily. Nearly every one of us here routinely spends many hours of the day, at home asleep or watching TV or something. There's no evidence at all to show you were there except for the word of family members, which juries routinely ignore. Thus, if someone you dislike is murdered, bam you're a suspect and you have no proof of your innocence.
As it turns out, you DO need to prove your innocence. "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't mean anything if they can show 'circumstantial' evidence that indicates that you had the means (as in you had a pair of hands), the motive (you hated the victim because they did something bad to you) and the opportunity (you COULD have gotten to the victim in the time window indicated, and you don't have any proof you didn't. You know, no proof other than dozens of witnesses or whatever. No actual proof, like phone records that you have proof you didn't fake, etc).
I'm referring to this trial, btw : http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8116945
This guy has the death penalty by the slow option : automatic life w/o parole. He has to prove his innocence to ever get out....and it's a totally different matter to prove you couldn't, by any possible means, have committed a crime vs. showing that you did.
This thing transmits on 433MHz! I have a license (issued by the Feds) to transmit on that frequency. hmmm...
(Yes, like the article this comment is very USA centric.)
It's been said privacy and anonymity are 'modern inventions'. That may be so, however when looking at the foundations of these United States, and how personal liberty was one of the founding tenets, if not THE founding tenet, I find it hard to believe that an unjust 'surveillance society' could be allowed to develop and exist. The hipocrisy and irony here, referenced by US history, is too much to bear.
(begin rant)
Now, I don't know specifically who the FBI are targeting with these, seems like it was environmental activists up through terrorist suspects according to the article, but if the $50+ Billion we spend annually for 'intel' between the NSA, CIA, DIA can't usurpe threats to this nation, either foreign or domestic, explain to me how violating several parts of the Bill of Rights will!
(end rant)
They said that if I voted Republican, we'd get warrantless wiretapping. I voted Republican, and what do you know, we did!
It's hardly even a joke any more. Obama's just as bad as his opponents, except we also get Obamacare added on top.
Oh, wait a sec...........
Never mind.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
...had the same effect as shooting the little boy who had his thumb in the hole in the dam in the head. Stinks...we didn't even get a Beer Hall Putsch as warning. Unless that was Palin?
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
First: who knows? Even if you're not cynical about government convicting or even prosecuting innocent people all the time, surely you admit they investigate innocent people all the time. They have to in order to do their job, rule out suspects, etc. This is why the we try to limit them taking extra more-invasive steps against people to only when they can show they have a good reason. If they only looked at people who are doing things that really warrant their attention, we would assume them to have godlike infallibility and wouldn't even bother with a justice system at all; just have them pass sentence on the bad guys.
But aside from that...
If it is legal for law enforcement to do this without a warrant, that suggests that legally the activity of putting a bug on someone else's care isn't special; i.e. it is not something that is considered to be a violation of privacy for which we sometimes permit government to do it as part of their rightful monopoly on force. In other words, if government can do this without invoking its special government-y powers, then anyone should be legally allowed to do it.
So your question becomes:
Might the neighborhood burglar like realtime updated reports on when you're home and when you're not? Might your insurance carrier want to know if your daily patterns are outside the median? Might your stalker want to know where you are? Might your ex-wife's private investigator want to know who you're visiting? Might ClearChannel want to know which billboards you drive by most often? And so on. Draw on your paranoia and imagination and I think you'll see that Big Brother is just one of many brothers to be concerned about.
If Just Anyone is not allowed to bug your car, then that suggests it is a special power reserved for government, and you're going to have a hard time arguing it's not a violation of privacy (if it's not, then why can't I bug your car?) or that it doesn't require any sort of balances or limits of power for which the 4th amendment was intended to provide protection.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
This makes me pretty mad as well; any and all GPS tracking should require a warrant. Period. Sad thing is, with just about any cell phone, you can be tracked just by your position in relation to cell phone towers--not to mention all the devices that are GPS-enabled--without your knowledge.
Not sure how legal they are, but there are GPS-jamming devices that can be had for relatively cheap: http://goo.gl/4TUL6 . The problem with those is neither you nor the cars around you will be able to use GPS navigation either...
Preaching to the choir there boy!
with the Obama administration seeking Supreme Court approval for its use of the devices without a warrant
I'm sure it's still Bush's fault, somehow.
How long until the FBI starts selling this info? Hell, it works for Google.
Uh huh...BTW where the hell have you been for the past 80 years or so? The FBI have always been jack booted thugs going back to their very formation! look up COINTELPRO and see how they have gone so far as to execute Americans on American soil for daring to speak views that weren't on the FBI's approved list of things Negroes were allowed to say at the time.
Anybody that expects the FBI to be anything BUT jack booted attack dogs really haven't been paying attention, just as anybody that thought Nobama would be any different than McSame obviously hadn't been following the money. We lost this country decades ago the only difference now is the greedy swine at the top have gotten so ballsy they don't even pretend to give a fuck about things like the constitution anymore.
But as others have said sooner or later we'll have our very own Egypt and things will get real ugly. I'm betting when China dumps their dollars and starts a worldwide dollar dump and the US dollar is worth about as much as a buck in Zimbabwe the excrement WILL hit the bladed cooling device. My guess is a lot of rich folks will be doing their impersonation of the fall of Saigon complete with helicopters taking off of roofs to escape the hordes. The real question will be what comes after which I kinda feel sorry for the rest of the planet then because as we saw in Europe a militant nation with massive unemployment and a shitload of weapons tends to get nasty to those around them. Hell we even have the pre-made groups to persecute, just replace Jews and Gypsy with Mexicans and H1-Bs.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Or disable them, other than jamming GPS or cell phone?
These will become more common in many countries...
The way to exploit being followed is to provide the enemy with the data you wish them to have. Take digital pics of its position on the vehicle so you can replace it, then use it as an alibi!
It can be moving when you are in-place, or in-place when you are moving. It can be moving elsewhere, states away if you like.
You can state you were at X location and KNOW that matches their data without revealing that you know this.
One doesn't "hide" by turning off parts of the system, one hides by making the system your bitch.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Why would they go to all the effort of slapping a custom-build gps device on a car when an iPhone will do the trick much more effectively? Plus, there's no risk of negative PR. It'll be a feature to be tracked by the FBI, so they can keep you safe at all times.
standard household 120v AC, hooked to each antenna for a few seconds should modify the unit to the desired operating status.
The neighbor's van solution *is* funnier, however, although placing it in the middle of a raw sewage processing facility, a rural outhouse or a porn theatre has some appeal.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/ Cool tidbit (well I think it's cool): I personally worked on all the ST820s when I was at Cobham. I'd have tested that unit!
If both Google and Apple can track exactly where you are every time you click or touch any of their devices or android tools... why can't the FBI?
It would be interesting, I think, to reverse engineer how these things work. Then overwhelm the FBI with bogus data. Drown them with so much false data that the stuff they are after is useless.
What is the range of this device? How far can it transmit? Is it possible to intercept these signals?
Could you put up a receiver at a busy intersection and see if anyone in your town is being tracked by the FBI? Could you let them know?
Wow; if I were to find one of these the options are almost limitless.
How about replacing the GPS module (which just spews a serial 4800 NMEA data stream of GPS data) w/ an Arduino that 'drives across the country' continuously;
perhaps you should get in touch with the EPA and charge the FBI with the unlawful disposal of chemical waste (go have a read about those batteries).
I'm so glad I don't live in a police state like the USA
If the government can put a GPS tracker on a citizen car without a warrant, then a citizen should be able to put a GPS tracker on a government car. ;-)
http://nwbagpipes.com/
Call the bomb squad and tell them someone attached a suspicious device to your car, they will remove it safely (and they will not blow up your car once they figure out it's not a bomb, that doesn't happen in real life). If this is done enough times, the people deploying GPS trackers will catch enough flak from local cops about false alarms that they'll stop. You can probably initiate a lawsuit against John Doe for planting a fake bomb on your car and scaring you / preventing you from going to work / etc.
If this is a matter of law, try to solve it using the law. If not, get creative, put it on your boat, do a teardown for ifixit etc. I have no problem with the government setting the rules (that's what it is there for afterall!) but then they have to play with them. If unknown persons donated a gps and packet radio to me I would be elated, personally :)
Disclaimer: I build bomb squad equipment, mostly robots.
This is just pure creepy scumbag level behaviour. How can you american put up with it? Don't vote Obama ever again, ultimately the responsibility for continuing such illegal activities falls on him. He betrayed your trust.
That would make for an Epic all point bulitin.
"Subjects gps position indicates that they crashed their vehicle into a porn theater"
Well, will it?
As a Mexican, I have to ask, do we really have to replace the Jews and Gypsies?
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Ben Franklin
How do I determine if I have one of these things on my car?
Any good surveillance methods have backups, I guess.
For what it's worth I don't think this is going to be stopped.
Even if the Supreme Court says any evidence gathered this way can't be used in court, police will still use these techniques to develop a "habit profile" on a suspect. Then fall back on more conventional techniques of tracking to disclose any useful discoveries. "I had a hunch your honor so I followed them and witnessed them ."
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Darn. 2-3 years ago a guy brought me a couple of similar units, and a bunch of other expensive looking electronics, that some engineer in Savannah had tossed in the trash. Could have written a really detailed teardown and had some fun playing around with them, AND maybe gotten a reward for returning the units to the company that pretty obviously had no intention of trashing them. But, I've been burned before, doing the "right" thing. No good deed goes unpunished, etc. Not to mention I didn't have 2 nickels to rub together, or a working net connection, to submit articles.
C'est la vie.
jbdigriz
I say no. Being Mexican just means your ancestors might have been just a few miles outside the right side of the US southern border when that was defined.
Let's pick on the Guatemalans. They weren't even close.
And how the hell did the post above yours get modded to 5? It wasn't informative in the least. It's the same tired old tin-foil hat shit - not that the government doesn't abuse the Constitution, but "jack booted attack dogs" is almost trollish.
These custom built tracking devices cost a lot of money.
If you find one under your car, you should be ashamed of wasting tax payer money like that (and also for forcing a federal agent to get down there and make his suit pants dirty.)
Just get a new car with OnStar, and I guarantee you you won't find another tracking device in your car's bumper.
GPS signals are weak spread spectrum and so fairly easy to jam. I don't know the legalities but I'm sure they are illegal. However, if you are worth being monitored by the FBI then you probably aren't so concerned about that.
A quick search and here we go: http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=60&id=13
You could probably spoof the signal as well, but that might be a lot more difficult to implement, but would be a much more elegant solution.
Cue the "if the FBI try to plant a bug on my vehicle on my private land, I fully intend to shoot the officers dead who try it" posts in 3...2...
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
who are incorruptible, the answer is no, maybe computers who can think between one and zero will help us
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
"There is not yet a Tracking Device repair manual, but you can start one!"