FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling

FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling

blogs.wsj.com...

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

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Checked around, didnt see it posted

I dont know how to take this. This would be great news but gps is going to be in every car anyway. On the other hand, this stops them from physically attaching devices on your cars. 3,000 is alot of people, alot of devices, alot of money.

Why would the fbi have a problem collecting the devices it turned off? More than likely you should have more information on the person to locate than just a live gps update? So they had to get a court order in order to turn them on, locate and retrieve.....

How do you guys feel about this?

[url=http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/25/fbi-turns-off-thousands-of-gps-devices-after-supreme-court-ruling/?KEYWORDS=gps+devices]blogs.wsj.com[/url ]
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If I find one on my car, is it OK now to smash it in with a bat?

Originally posted by satron
If I find one on my car, is it OK now to smash it in with a bat?

edit on 26-2-2012 by satron because: (no reason given)

In my opinion should have been able to do that anyway. Was it against some law? I mean yeah it's gov property but its on your car and you might not know WHO put it there, gov or not...so smash it

reply to post by SGTSECRET




I wouldn't want to be declared a terrorist for destroying government property, so actually, it would probably just happen to dislodge itself on the highway, or over a bridge.

reply to post by satron


Or it somehow accidentally bounces off and sticks to someone else's car.

Originally posted by satron
reply to post by SGTSECRET

 

I wouldn't want to be declared a terrorist for destroying government property, so actually, it would probably just happen to dislodge itself on the highway, or over a bridge.

If they have one on your car, they most likely already consider you a terrorist.

I'd smash it and then charge the FBI for any extra fuel the added weight may have caused me. Hah, good luck with that I know, hard to do from gitmo.

Still, why do they need to stick them to your car... even my cheapo mobile has gps. don't they just have to log into facebook and know what I'm thinking???

ahhh the world is soo small now it wont get out of my head...

Originally posted by tjack
reply to post by satron

 

Or it somehow accidentally bounces off and sticks to someone else's car.

Hahaha Now this I like!!

reply to post by mainidh


Extra points if its a cop car!

2

Originally posted by satron
If I find one on my car, is it OK now to smash it in with a bat?

edit on 26-2-2012 by satron because: (no reason given)

Better to give a tramp $10 if he'll shove it up his arse. Then let the FBI trace and retrieve it!

Yeah somehow i highly doubt they turned them off. more like they told em they turned em off while they kick the task to a privately funded security firm (black water, XE, or wtf they decided to call them selves now.

I sincerely doubt they can turn then off remotely.
More like they are retrieving them casually while they recieve the last signals right up to the recovery.
they wont waste intelligence even if ordered to......I can even imagine them not being able to recocer all of them swiftly...may take a while ya know....

Problem: Warrantless GPS
Solution:www.jammerall.com...

Yep, they will stop using those 3,000 GPS's...but will get OTHER 3,000 GPS's instead

Losing Track

It's both surprising and encouraging to see news actually reaffirming something constitutional, rather than the usual relentless, steady erosion of rights that normally greets us each day. Here's hoping this actually means something and isn't just window-dressing for the masses.

They don't need to track you when they can detain you indefinitely without trial, counsel or hearing.

reply to post by Majic

It's both surprising and encouraging to see news actually reaffirming something constitutional, rather than the usual relentless, steady erosion of rights that normally greets us each day.

I am not sure what country you live in but as far as I am aware I have had the same rights I have always had.

People can scream "NDAA!" but even that isn't a sure thing and was pointless add-on anyway. And when it is challenged in front of SCOTUS (and it will be) it will most likely be overturned.

Do you actually think the FBI is going to abide by a supreme court decision? Puhlease. It'll be business as usual, except now they'll have to find other evidence to use in court instead of GPS data, and I am sure they can fabricate whatever they need. If they get caught, they just plead ignorance and say something like "Oh, we might have missed deactivating that one, but uh, we weren't tracking it."

Foreign Nationals

reply to post by TsukiLunar

In the country where I grew up, there was no such thing as a "no-knock warrant", the First Amendment wasn't used to suppress religious observance in schools and public places instead of protect it, it was illegal for the government to seize property and auction it off without a trial (i.e. "drug seizures"), surveillance of U.S. citizens wasn't legal without a search warrant approved by a judge, you could build on your property without worrying about being shut down to save the spotted titmouse, there was no such thing as "political correctness", kids could bring aspirin to school without being expelled, it was easier for U.S. citizens to enter and leave the country than foreigners, police officers didn't drive tanks or carry machineguns, you could fly on an airplane without being electronically strip-searched or physically groped, it was illegal to assassinate U.S. citizens abroad, journalists investigated the government instead of parroting its press releases, boys could play with toy guns without being shot by police, intelligence agencies spent more time monitoring other countries than our own, waterboarding, brainwashing and other forms of torture were openly practiced by the "bad guys" and not the "good guys", you could actually buy penny candy for a penny, and we were more likely to be murdered en masse by the Soviets than our own government.

There were plenty of problems too, but at least the very idea of freedom wasn't as openly mocked, denigrated, neglected or flat-out ignored as it is today.

So yeah, maybe we do live in different countries.

Originally posted by THE_PROFESSIONAL
Problem: Warrantless GPS
Solution:www.jammerall.com...

I dont suppose these could be used to knock the drones that are coming our way out of the sky can they??

.. . and now they'll do as they're told and promptly go and turn them all off? I think not.

Saying they'll turn them off and actually doing it are two differents things.

What makes you think they'll turn them off now when they didn't even bother with a warrant to place them?