FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling

[babylonsister]

FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling

By Julia Angwin


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.

more...

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/25/fbi-turns-off-thousands-of-gps-devices-after-supreme-court-ruling/

[Duer 157099]

1. Wink, wink, nod, nod

Sure they did.

[TalkingDog]

10. My response exactly.

nt

[seeviewonder]

2. Best decision SCOTUS has made in a long time. n/t

[saras]

3. If they're not supposed to be there, does this mean we can move them around?

[shcrane71]

4. If a citizen finds one of these devices on his car, can the citizen keep it as his own?

Possession and 9/10s and all??

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. I would stick it under a bus, if I found it.

Or a long distance truck.

Ooohhh ooohh..even better...a police car!

[TalkingDog]

11. Nope. Too easy. That doesn't cost them any money.

If you find one on a car and you put it on another vehicle, then can track it down and remove it.

If you throw it in the river, a couple thousand dollars is coming out of somebody's paycheck.

I vote for costing them money.

[sabrina 1]

5. Good, it was a surprise ruling coming from this court.

[Zalatix]

6. Pity we can't have a parade to celebrate this...

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. are they going to sneak back and collect them? ask the spied upon to mail them back?

[Wilms]

9. A guy crawled out from under my car the other day.

Said he was with Dish Network. I thought there was something funny about that.

[DeSwiss]

12. K&R

Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back

[Rex]

13. Sad ain't it?

Funny, I am old enough to remember a time when the U.S. Constitution meant something.

[DeSwiss]

14. ....

[Dawson Leery]

15. One less abuse by the "protectors" of society.