Good News: The FBI turns off that secret GPS tracking device they installed on your car

 


You are probably thinking they only had a few of these devices. They had 3000 of them!

(WSJ)- The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.

Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.

These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.

After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them. Keep on reading...

Heroes: SCOTUS Unanimously rules police can't put GPS device on your car without warrant

The police involved in this violation of liberty should now be fired.

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON — In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that police cannot attach a GPS device to a criminal suspect's car to track their movements without first obtaining a search warrant.

A GPS device had helped authorities link Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison.

A federal appeals court in Washington had overturned Jones' drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month.

The Supreme Court agreed.

Why does Obama want the GPS coordinates to your house?

The Obama administration is currently involved in an effort to collect the GPS coordinates to every front door in America. The stated purpose is to assist in the 2010 census. Many people are asking what the GPS location of their home has to do with the government counting how many people live at their address. There has not been a good explanation from the Obama administration. Americans have good reason to be wary of the 2010 census after the Obama's recent decision to put White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in an oversight role. Normal use for GPS is to find a location very quickly or very accurately. The military uses GPS information in this way. Surely, Obama isn't planning on sending a cruise missile at our homes. People are asking what other reason the military or anyone else would have for needing to come to our houses with GPS speed and accuracy. One reason suggested is quick imposition of martial law or some other contrived emergency. This is a very troubling event for civil libertarians. WorldNetDaily reported:

According to an online Yahoo program, the Global Position System coordinates for the White House, probably one of the best-known publicly owned buildings in the world, are 38.898590 Latitude and -77.035971 Longitude. And since you know that, it's no big deal for the White House to know the coordinates for your front door, is it?

Some people think it is, and are upset over an army of some 140,000 workers hired in part with a $700 million taxpayer-funded contract to collect GPS readings for every front door in the nation.

The data collection, presented as preparation for the 2010 Census, is pinpointing with computer accuracy the locations and has raised considerable concern from privacy advocates who have questioned why the information is needed. The privacy advocates also are more than a little worried over what could be done with that information.

Enhancing the concerns is the Obama administration's recent decision to put White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in an oversight role over the census, which will be used to determine a reapportionment of congressional seats and could be used to solidify a single political party's control over the nation, its budget, military and future.