GPS Tracking ROI

Court rules that sly GPS tracking isn’t unlawful

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 4th 2007 at 6:40PM

It’s one thing to offload (illegally) a dozen or so GPS units from a storage facility and beg the police to nab you by leaving them turned on, but for the boys in blue to slide a tracking device into your ride to keep dibs on your doings, well that’s another matter entirely. Earlier this month, the Seventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals "ruled against a defendant who claimed that the surreptitious placement of a GPS tracking device amounted to an unconstitutional search," essentially giving the coppers the green light to add a GPS module to a suspicious ride sans a warrant. While we’re sure the privacy advocates out there are screaming bloody murder, the district judge found that they had had a "reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity," and it seems that a well-placed hunch is all they need for lawful placement. Interestingly, the government argues that no warrant was needed since "there was no search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment," but did add that "wholesale surveillance of the entire population" was to be viewed differently. So while this may come as a shock to some folks out there, it’s not like your vehicles have been entirely devoid of data capturing devices up until now anyway, so here’s fair warning to be on your best behavior when rolling about. There’s more excellent discussion on legalities of GPS Tracking on Engadget.

Often the general news media hue and cry about GPS and privacy issues is so lopsided or ignorant I don’t even bother to read it or post about it.

In general,

• If you own a vehicle you can track it
• If folks work for you, you can track them with their prior consent
• If you’re a parent, you can track your child
• If you carry a cell phone it is subject to tracking, GPS or not

Those four generalization however don’t begin to track the surface of GPS …. I should say  … tracking law.  I am at heart a person who believes that in many ways we already have too many damn laws.  But I can’t deny that in the case of rapidly expanding new technology we need new laws … or significant clarification of old ones.  Let’s take one example from my bullets above.  Parent tracking child.  If, by child, we mean a natural offspring under 18 years of age, although I am not a lawyer, I think you can safely say that you can track that person, with or without their consent, in any of the 50 states.  Whether or not you should track without consent is another story for another day (I think not), but I don’t think one of your own children could successfully bring suit against you for doing so.

What about a stepchild, though, as in the story the article references?  Wanna make a bet?  I sure don’t.  Although in many cases the law would consider your rights the same as a natural parent there are dozens or hundreds of other factors that might enter in.  What does the child’s natural parent think?  How old is the child?  on and on. 

Now let’s say you have some vehicles in your business.  You place tracking devices on them and use the information you gather to help you run your business.  So far I think you’re on safe ground anywhere.  But one day you find some egregious employee misconduct by an individual, you fire him, based on what you "see" him doing via the GPS records.  He files a wrongful termination suit.  Does he have a chance?  Again, something I wouldn’t make a bet on because the law is so silent on this matter it’s like a vacuum.

You give an employee a company-owned laptop.  You take care to insure that there is no GPS device attached to it because you specifically want to avoid the tracking issue.  Now the employee downloads a free software like Loki and sends his location back to the office unintentionally, proving he’s in Fenway watching the Sox when he swore he was going down to Providence that afternoon to see a client without fail.  Can you fire him based on knowing his location without his knowledge, even if he was the person who installed the technology? (I’ve written about this non-GPS location technology here).  Among other things it does this:

Location-Based Search and ‘Virtual GPS’

Loki pinpoints your exact physical location and then uses that location to make the web revolve around you wherever you are. With Loki you’ll always know where you are, make sure that others know where you are too, never get lost and always be able to find stuff nearby.

The law should tell us what we can’t do, and by default then we can do what the law doesn’t speak to us, but we can’t take proper advantage of GPS and wireless technology with today’s deafening silence.  GPS is in the forefront on this issue but there are other common tracking technologies, in particular cell phones (even those without GPS) and wireless IP tracking technology.

An interesting little article today I picked up on about GPS tracking and the social networking phenomenon.  I get plenty of searches here at GPS ROI Tracking and also have heard plenty of people express their desire not to be tracked.  It’s almost obligatory that every business owner will ask about the possibilities of tracking his/her workers secretly as well (I don’t recommend this, by the way, but in many cases it’s completely legal).

So when “those who know” find out that people aren’t following what the “knowledgeable ones” perceive is the wisdom of the crowd it makes news.   The Herald tribune (whom I have quoted several times previously) is smart enough to recognize that”news” is exactly what “news” implies … although a few of the sources quoted in this article seem to come across as telling people what to do, rather than reporting what people actually prefer to do.

Virtually everyone who has any ‘Net savvy at all knows about the massive boom in “social networking”.  Here the International Trib has a nice piece of reportage on the actual facts of ordinary folk and the GPS aspect of social networking.  The Luddites among us tsk tsk tsk with all sorts of reasons why people shouldn’t share information with others.  The so-called Electronic Freedoms Foundation, whom I have always found to be an organization which defines “freedom” strictly on it’s own terms, issues a statement about how this trend to share locations is a “massive change” and about how the Foundation has yet to grapple with the privacy risks.  Hmm, nothing like getting a handle 0on it, Mr. Bankston, the GPS has been around, useable by the public for close to 20 years now … and cell phone, whether by GPS or other means must be locatable under Federal Law for several years now.  So, perhaps, the EFF will soon blow the dust off their calendar and begin to “grapple” with something in this century, rather than the last?

(more…)

Recently I posted a very well-received article on the basics of using GPS to monitor employees. There is certainly a need for more information on this, including some of the “catch 22’s” that may result. From the number of searches I get daily looking for information on this subject there is no doubt the need is out there … and I fill needs.

Important Disclaimer:

I am not an attorney and I can not provide legal advice. This information is offered in good faith but with absolutely no assurance as to accuracy or applicability to your particular situation. If you need legal advice, you need an attorney. Use one.

With that out of the way I’ll make a general statement which is almost always true. people seem obsessed with the idea of GPS tracking and invasion of their privacy rights. Our privacy rights are important to all of us, and some of them are even guaranteed under the Constitution. But, in many cases, citizens perform acts that waive their rights to privacy, so you need to think things trough before you lose too much sleep over the evils of GPS tracking. These are just a few of the ways we give up privacy rights, knowingly or unknowingly:

• Employment: in consideration of your employer paying you wages you grant the employer the right to govern where and how you perform your work. If you don’t wish to give your employer a general waiver of where you are and what you are doing I would suggest you do something like becoming an independent contractor or gain some other self employed status. Using a GPS device to determine where you are is essentially no different from driving around and looking via the Mark I eyeball at your location and determining the time via a wind-up wrist watch. In some cases employees have successfully held that they had a certain privacy guarantee regarding their work … such as where they stop for lunch, etc., but in the overwhelming number of cases the court will hold that such privacy does not exist in an employee/employer relationship. You might like to read this fellow’s take on the value of a job, I find it very interesting. or this guy, Fred Reed, one of my personal heroes.
• Cell Phones: Have you got one? Do you know that the FCC requires your phone carrier to be able to locate you to within 125 meters? This applies to any phone, not just a later model with GPS. Do you know that law enforcement can track your cell phone location at any time, with court approval, and, increasingly they can track “general population” movements, such as getting a list of everyone in a sports stadium during a specific game even without a search warrant? Thought you didn’t. So if you are concerned about privacy you had better not carry a cell phone or any similar PDA, with or without a GPS feature.
• ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition): I’ve written on this one before, here and here for a sample. Time and time again the courts have upheld the rights of police and sometimes even private citizens to monitor those engaged in public activities, such as driving their employee’s vehicle or a personal car or truck. Depending upon your state of residence and/or the state you are in at the moment, you give up a lot by getting a driver’s license and/or registering a car. ALPR takes the technology of digital cameras, computers and character recognition software to automate the process of recording people’s license plates and checking them against a database to new heights. 3,000 to even 6,000 plates per hour processing speeds are common … so better not drive, even without GPS, if you are really concerned about privacy.

As always, I welcome comments, disagreement is encouraged, and you can also email me direct at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872. If you liked this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed so you get all my news and views.

And Have a Happy 4th!

Heartwarming Tale: Boy Gets Lifesaving Transplant

GPS technology brought together a sick Pennsylvania boy with a new donor heart in the nick of time, reported WTAE-TV Pittsburgh and the Associated Press. Ten-year-old John Paul May of Harrisville needed to be located within a narrow four-hour window, but despite searching his mother’s usual haunts — such as the local mall and grocery store — hospital officials and police couldn’t find the family. His mother had a cell phone, but the volume was off.

With time running out, the boy’s cardiologists enlisted police to track down May’s mother through her cell phone. State police contacted Sprint Nextel Corp. to get the coordinates of his mother’s phone, and located them at a university jazz concert. Police officers rushed in, interrupted the performance, and told the entire audience that a new heart was waiting for John Paul.

The 500-strong crowd gave the boy a standing ovation as he left for the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

GPS tracking on personal phones can only be used in life-or-death situations or to track someone wanted in a homicide, according to state police. Otherwise, police must get a warrant from a judge.

At last report, the young John Paul was doing well with his newly found heart. 

Courtesy GPS World magazine … if you are reading this site you must have an interest in GPS.  If you aren’t reading GPS World, you are missing a LOT.  I’ve been a subscriber for years, it’s well worth it.

Haven’t written on GPS Privacy for some time now.  There’s a few previous articles here .. (see the “Categories” section or use the handy search box, top right).  Saw this today and couldn’t resist passing it on.  Even the most ardent privacy advocate has got to read this and think a bit.  How great was the invasion of privacy of John Paul’s mom (one wonders why she was so enthused about personal privacy that she would risk her son’s life, but hey, that’s a story for another day)versus the outcome which resulted in a young boy being given a chance to live?

If you’re adamantly opposed still, that’s fine with me.  But the train can’t be sopped and it’s up to all of us with opinions, for and against, to shape the schedule and route the train is going to take.  Think it through for yourself, and then work with your elected officials, local, state and federal, to make the laws read the way you think they ought to.  Come to think of it … how many elected officials even have an opinion on the tracking (GPS and other technologies) privacy issue?  Does yours?

A lot of traffic here that the GPS ROI blog comes from people who used a search term similar to how can I keep my boss (or parent, spouse, local law enforcement, etc.) from tracking me? It’s a very understandable question and I can understand why the thought of being monitored sets people’s nerves on edge. But something I’ve noticed lately is that GPS has become the “bogey man de jour” … as folks become aware of how many businesses have chosen to increase safety and profitability by GPS tracking employee vehicles, how many parents are now interested in GPS tracking for their teens, how many crime investigations are now influenced by GPS tracking data, they have focused on the issues and fears surrounding GPS technology.

For those who are passionate about privacy and protection from surveillance and self-incrimination I would suggest that you are focusing on only a very narrow subset of the devices “big brother” is keep tabs on you with.

Except for certain highly sophisticated clandestine law enforcement type GPS trackers it is pretty easy to tell when one is installed on a vehicle. And pretty easy to defeat since there has to be an antenna that can see the sky. For the cell phone “worries” the situation is even simpler … turn off the tracking feature from the menu on the phone … or turn the damn phone off. Of course, if you drive a GM car (and now a few other brands) you may be pretty sure there’s a GPS on board … if you are the owner of the car you can have it turned off, if you aren’t, there are several destructive or non-destructive measures you can take to defeat the ubiquitous On Star GPS tracking. (more…)

Governor Tim Pawlenty wants to explore replacing Minnesota’s motor fuels tax with one based on mileage. He argues that the advent of renewable fuels and more hybrids hitting the roads is already lowering the demand for gasoline.
And, he says, as consumption of gas and diesel drops the reliabilty of the fuel tax as a source will also falter. Currently the state’s fuel tax of 20-cents per gallon raises $650 million a year, but that has leveled off recently and is already projected to fall.
“And this would allow us then to charge by mile driven, regardless of fuel source. It would be a fuel neutral charge for miles driven,” the Governor told reporters in his budget address.
Mr. Pawlenty included $5 million in his 2008-09 budget to launch a pilot project testing a mileage tax system in Minnesota. The state of Oregon started a similar test in March, using 250 volunteers driving specially equipped cars… Rest of the Pay As You Drive article here

Happy President’s Day weekend to my readers in the US.  Although you all know I am a certified (certifiable?) GPS nut I still don’t know if every scheme that someone thinks up for the use of “my” toy is a smart scheme.

States and the federal government obviously are somewhat interested in driver’s economizing on the use of foreign fuel.  Drivers, to some extent, are also interested in savings.  This has the side effect of reducing state’s fuel taxes collected.  There are various solutions offered from time to time, one of which has been having a lot of play lately … all can be lumped under the catch phrase of PAYD, Pay As You Drive.   I’ve written a bit on this already, see

GPS for PAYD? Not the way Oregon is Heading , GPS Tracking For The Consumer — It Ain’t Just For Big Rigs and especially

Dirty Little Secret — When is a Mile not a Mile (or a Kilometer not a Kilometer) for a little background.

Bottom lone still boils down to be the folks who think universal GPS tracking is a solution to the shrinking tax problem have it wrong in several ways:

• Privacy:  The state(s) will collect massive amounts of information that they will either have to devise expensive means to protect or suffer interminable suits by disgruntled citizens … putting one citizen’s total on-road activities on-line in one repository is certain to run afoul of current or future privacy regulations.
• Data Volume: Tracking a fleet of vehicles for a business our a government agency or even a family of teenagers is a definable task which can be scoped and budgeted for,  tracking a whole state full of vehicles will produce a huge burden in data storage, sorting, back up and analysis tasks,
• Accuracy:  If you want to tax me by the gallon or liter of fuel I purchase, great.  The pumps are verifiably accurate and kept that way by weights and measures people.  GPS trackers and even the basic odometers in a car are not covered by any form of national certification and can easily be off by even 10 or more percent.  You can not tax me with a yardstick that can’t be verified.  Trying to do0 so will just be a full time lawyer employment act.

So think this through, Governor Pawlenty an others in this position.  GPS is a great tool, a wonderful tool for many things but it is not a gas tax collector, period.

One of the places you seldom find me hanging about and certainly almost never find me commenting are on the “ultra cool” gadget sites like Wired. These guys are very good at what they do, covering the newest and most timely news on new web developments, software (they’ll have months and months of trivia to peddle with Microsoft’s at long last launch of Vista) and tend to write with a certain edginess or “snarkiness” that appeals to the introverted 20 something who still live in daddy’s basement, on daddy’s credit card and bitch about the “establishment”.

I have nothing against the snarky part, writing with a little edge tends to keep people awake. Goodness knows my writing probably bores a lot of people, so I really am not singling them out from any feelings of “sour grapes”.

But this is the second time in as many days that I’ve seen a big, well funded and theoretically “authoritative” site posting articles on GPS tracking as if they understood. I don’t try to tell people what’s “hot” with the XBox or other trendy items because I respect my readers enough to stick to my areas of knowledge. Would that the “Wired”’s of the world have the same respect.

Now the article that got my6 attention is here. It’s a not badly written piece that describes yet another in the long string of legal findings that establishes that police do not need a search warrant to place a GPS tracking device on the outside surfaces of a suspect’s car. Defense attorneys, of course have been milking this for years now, just because you’re client is guilty as sin and you know you’re going to loose is certainly no reason not to pile on another thousand billable hours on the 4th Amendment issue.

At the very end of the article though, the contributor of the post, who clearly has been napping for the past few years since he feels the judge rendered some sort of unique legal decision here can’t resist throwing in a snide comment that calls the judge’s competence into question by remarking that the court seemed to think, in their opinion, that one could track vehicles using a GPS and Google Earth.

Well I hate to wake you up from your long nap, Mr. Beschizza, but I’ve sold or issued contracts to buy hundreds and hundreds of GPS trackers that can be tracked on Google Earth. Matter of fact I’ve mentioned several times in the past few days how the ready availability and high level of detail available in Google earth and its web-based subset, Google Maps is opening the floodgates for a whole new generation of GPS tracking opportunities. See here and here, for example. There’s life here in the old boy yet, I guess.