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NJ Judge Rules GPS Tracking of Spouse Legal
Endoflow2010 writes "The use of a GPS device to track your whereabouts is not an invasion of privacy in New Jersey, a state appellate court panel ruled today. Based on the battle of a divorcing Gloucester County couple, the decision helps clarify the rules governing a technology increasingly employed by suspicious spouses — many of whom hire private investigators. No state law governs the use of GPS tracking devices, and the ruling, which does not affect police officers, is the first to address the issue, said Jimmie Mesis, past president of the New Jersey Licensed Private Investigators Association. 'We only use it when we are sure we have the appropriate conditions,' [private investigator Lisa Reed] said, noting that investigators make sure GPS devices are installed in cars on public streets and not private areas, and that the spouse must have some legal or financial connection to the car."
That could be a problem.
The legality here, which the end of the summary alludes to, is that there's joint ownership involved with respect to the car. If a car is property of both parties, and spouse A puts a tracker on it (or more likely gets a PI to do it), but doesn't tell spouse B, then (s)he can't be charged under this precedent. It sucks, from a moral standpoint, that the being-spied-upon spouse doesn't have a recourse, but what's right and what's legal aren't always the same thing.
A GPS jammer OTOH could be illegal by simple dint of disrupting the GPS systems of people not involved in this marital spat. This is an annoyance if the person being disrupted is merely using their GPS to get to the grocery store; it could be a much bigger problem if they're on their way to the hospital. I'm not sure as to the legality of jammers by jurisdiction, but it would surprise me if there aren't laws or precedent in place, for more or less this reason.
A better solution would be a detector; sweep the car for bugs.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Well if you are cheating on your spouse then I am not sure that they are the only one with moral or ethical problems.
Awful ruling, but I'd have less problem with my spouse tracking me than the police doing it. And I could divorce my spouse, while I can't do that with the police.
we GPS jammers are illegal as to jam you need to broadcast on the same frequency with would require a licence that the FCC isn't going to give to anyone outside of the Military or NASA.
a detector more than likely wouldn't work as most of theses trackers are placed and they listen and then store data local and then are retrieved physically by the person who put it there.. if it isn't broadcasting it would be very difficult to detect remotely considering the current makeup of a modern car.
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Kids? House? Shared commitments?
We're not all 23 and dating, you know.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Technically, you are only keeping tabs on your own property. This reminds me of a colleague of mine that worked at a phone company, woman called in and was completely furious because they've given the records for HER phone to her husband. Except it wasn't her phone, it was registered in the name of the company and the company was in his name. He requested a detailed bill and the phone company simply complied. It doesn't matter that she was the one using it, that they called it hers because legally it was not - not that she was very willing to listen to that. Same when your spouse is using the car, it's not hers as the ownership is just as joined as ever. Sure a little creepy but it only applies to things you have joint or sole ownership in, that rather limits the uses.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I'm sure the wife knows the way to her boyfriend's place already.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Perhaps a simpler solution would be to refrain from cheating on your spouse...
Ownership laws trump privacy laws, but child exploitation trumps just about everything.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Even simpler....don't get married!!
Seriously, if you don't get married...and you want to upgrade to a 'newer model'...you don't risk losing half your worldly possessions, and splitting is as simple as "goodbye".
Keeps life much simpler....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You've clearly never been married. "proof of guilt" is not a moral or psychological issue: it's a *financial* one. If you can't prove your wife cheated on you, you may find yourself in a position where your ex-wife's now shacking up with your boss, your kids are taken away from you, your ex-wife has half your stuff and you owe alimony for the rest of your life.
I'm not making any moral judgements on anyone involved here, but the reason the knives come out during divorces is not because people are petty and vindictive. Well, they are petty and vindictive, but things get really vicious because gigantic piles of cash are involved.
The summary and article weren't specific about what type of tracker it was; it may have stored data locally or broadcast it. If you're storing data on the bug itself for later physical retrieval, then if the person driving the bugged car finds it, they can destroy it and the data, whereas remote monitoring ensures they only destroy the bug. And if it's just broadcasting a cellular signal, you could probably find it.
Now, part of me wonders if a smart bug might only broadcast occasionally, say by sending the last 24 hours of data once a day, to avoid being detected. That could be a bitch to find... (And if it's occurred to me, it's occurred to people smarter than me, so I'll bet that kind of bug exists).
Of course, for either a jammer of detector to matter to the discussion, you'd need to first believe that you were being tracked. TFA mentions this bug was in the glove compartment, so if the person had searched their car, they'd have found and disposed of it, or maybe had some fun screwing around with it first.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
The use of a GPS device to track your whereabouts is not an invasion of privacy in New Jersey, a state appellate court panel ruled today.
No, that is not what the panel ruled. The panel ruled that someone with at least partial ownership of a vehicle may install, or cause to be installed, a GPS tracking device even if said person is not the primary user of said vehicle.
This ruling is very narrow and does not address placing a GPS tracking device in a car one does not own.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
GPS wouldn't be there very long. From what I've seen New Jersey residents are used to looking under their cars before they start them.
When you're at the point of hiring me to follow your spouse, your marriage is already over.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I sense here you were attempting to be sarcastic...but honestly, I don't see anything wrong with what you said...or that that is bad.
I mean, if you actually want to have kids..sure ok, then you need the marriage thing...in general. But if you don't want them...then there is no reason to marry. I'm independent, any woman I'm with...needs to be somewhat independent too, and definitely be fiscally sound on HER OWN. I'm not out there to take someone along for the ride...if they don't carry their own weight financially in the relationship, then you as a guy are basically paying for pussy, and there's a better descriptive word for that.
But really...what good does it do to share property with someone? Share finances (unless you are earning at least nearly equal)? If they're earning too...there is no need to 'provide'.
And for me...I've never had an inclination to have kids...too much of a boat anchor for my preferred lifestyle. I don't want to sacrifice a large chunk of my life and development, nor do I want the financial burden, I particularly like having a great deal of disposable income to travel with and buy things that make me happy. I like to meet and enjoy various women, and if I got tied down...that could get messy.
It all depends on what you want out of life...it is short so make sure you do what you want to make it the most enjoyable you can.
But what you described isn't negative....if you don't want kids.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I use a cellphone which I gave to our child during a divorce. The carrier tracking service by Verizon notifies me anytime they entered of left designated zones. I know when she leaves the city, the state, visits her boyfriend, and when she lies about her whereabouts. But I'm not actually tracking her. I am tracking my young toddler child. She had disappeared for weeks with our child which started the divorce process. A lawyer was able to force her back.
Since then I bought my child a cellphone which is kept in the diaper bag for what I've called "emergencies" since she can't afford a cellphone. It is locked to only call myself or my parents and to only take incoming calls from the same. It cannot text. But it does have GPS which I pay $10 extra a month for with real time updates anytime I want. I usually don't look just because I don't want the battery to go dead because she doesn't charge it, and it could be gone for a week at a time.
If the cell tower changes it checks GPS. If GPS crosses a zone then I get an email alert with a map picture of the location and a logged date and time. I don't hide the phone, but have given it out openly. I haven't told her it is running GPS, but the phone is for my child, not her. I have even made clear that if she leaves our child somwhere and goes elsewhere, then the phone is to stay with whoever is watching our child, not her.
I won't let her go running off with my child in the middle of the night again. Too many parents lose their children to a parental abduction and never see them again for 20 years. She might ditch the cellphone and run. But I will know when and where my child was when it was last moved. Is this legal? My lawyer says that I have nothing to worry about.