Posted on 10/21/2008 10:06:02 AM PDT by BGHater
A federal court case in Pittsburgh could reach the U.S. Supreme Court for a "groundbreaking" decision about whether police officers need probable cause and search warrants to use GPS technology when tracking suspects, a local expert in constitutional law said.
Across the country, detectives are using the sometimes-controversial technology to investigate cases. But Pennsylvania law doesn't clearly dictate rules, said University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor John Burkoff, author of the "Search Warrant Law Deskbook."
"The law isn't entirely clear," Burkoff said. "There are many areas open to challenge, and to be safe, the best bet would be for a police officer to get a search warrant using probable cause to protect themselves. We're still figuring out -- the courts are -- about how to handle GPS data."
In Pittsburgh, federal prosecutors appealed a decision prohibiting them from seeking cell phone tracking information without first establishing probable cause.
In February, five federal magistrate judges rebuffed a request from the U.S. Attorney's Office, saying it ran afoul of privacy rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
"This case and a few others like it around the country could end up being groundbreaking and deciding how police and the courts should handle using this technology," Burkoff said.
When a cell phone is turned on, it constantly relays location information to towers serving its network. The phone scans for the strongest signal about every seven seconds.
Federal prosecutors want to obtain that stored information through warrantless cell phone tracking -- sometimes through real-time surveillance or, as prosecutors in Pittsburgh requested, through historic data showing where a user was at any given time.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Translation: cell company records can be used to keep track of where your cell phone has been (and thus where you likely have been) as well as where you currently are. There is special equipment that can “ping” your cell phone so that law enforcement can find you.
Oh.. wait a minute....
Sure would be an easy way to set someone up.
You don’t have this right to privacy but you can have sex with another man in a public park restroom and then go back to teaching children in school.
Does anyone know a really reliable way of finding or defeating these devices? I'm pretty sure this technology is being used against me.
It isn't for the courts to "figure out". It is for the LEGISLATURE to establish and the courts to determine if the laws established are constitutional.
Damn activist judges serving the police state.
So you have an absolute right to privacy concerning a 13 year old “woman’s” pregnancy & abortion decision; but none as to your phone calls?
One argument that might be decisive in either direction is that “a cell phone is not a person”.
That is, that as with the RIAA’s efforts to sue people based on their IP number, if their system is open WIFI, there is no way to associate that IP with a particular computer, much less a human user. (N.B. Google’s new “Chrome” browser *does* try to establish that a particular computer, at least, is the one that is surfing, so it takes away some of this anonymity.)
However, the flip side of the argument is that the police do not need a warrant to track *property*, only people. This, rather lame argument is the justification of property forfeiture in drug cases, even if no person is arrested.
Clearly, tracking people without probable cause is a violation of the 4th Amendment, so the bottom line is will the court be honest, or use convoluted arguments to justify this violation.
The courts are supposed to be blind but they are actively seeking to aid the prosecution.
Remove the power source. Only power it up when you want to transmit, and transmit only in a crowded public place.
Does anyone know a really reliable way of finding or defeating these devices? I’m pretty sure this technology is being used against me.
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Leave the battery out of the cell phone ... get a pager (pager messages are broadcast from all towers in the system without knowing or determining your location.. if it is a pager without reply capability) and only insert the battery in the phone to return or make calls from locations that have no downside or use a pay phone .. I have had 100% success when I forget my cell phone in simply asking someone “can I use your phone for a 1 minute call..it’s kind of an emergency” ...
the real answer is to find your antagonist and destroy them..
“Leave the battery out of the cell phone”
What about On-star, or those thumb drive GPS trackers you can buy? is there a way to stop “unknown” receivers ?
Several years ago, when GPS was fairly new, I talked with the owner of a store that sold GPS receivers. He said that the FBI was always coming in and buying GPS receivers from him. They would turn one on and hide it under the plastic covering of a car's metal bumper. Then they would retrieve it a few days later and download the track that showed where the vehicle had been. It wasn't real-time tracking, but it gave them ideas about the suspect's associates.
Destroying the antagonist is certainly the way to go, but I am up against a team of very expert professionals, who have basically destroyed my life with frequent attacks for the last 29 years and counting. They are able to open any kind of lock without force, for example.
On-Star can be defeated ,, simply disconnect the antenna or fuse. (the FBI can listen in to your car via On-star without turning on the red “mic-on” light ,, this does not use the GPS portion of the system but rather it’s cellular function) ..
GPS trackers cannot be effectively stopped as they are hard to detect (receive only) and to hinder their operation you would need to interfere with the GPS signal being received and there is probably a law against that.. as the previous post points out they need to be hidden yet receive signal ,, they are often hidden under the plastic bumper covers as that doesn’t block signal ... you could drive a truck with metal bumpers and no simple place to hide a tracker but I can’t say that would be fully effective...
I don't agree with it, but it seems that big brother wants to keep tabs on us. It's for the children, you know....
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