In a recent Wall Street Journal article by Julia Angwin, she comments on remarks made at the University of San Francisco “Big Brother in the 21st Century” conference by FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann. He acknowledged that as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Jones overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices there has been a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department. That ruling indicated that tracking a vehicle by law enforcement with a GPS device without a search warrant violates the Fourth Amendment. As a result, the FBI has turned off approximately 3000 GPS tracking devices. According to the article, Mr. Weissmann indicated that in order to retrieve some of the devices it was necessary for the FBI to obtain court orders to briefly activate some of them in order to locate and retrieve them.
The FBI is presently developing new guidelines for the use of GPS devices to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond the use of GPS tracking. Meanwhile in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the sponsor of a bill, HB 807, that would have outlawed most uses of GPS tracking by private investigators again on February 27 made a last-ditch attempt to have a Senate Committee vote a second time on his measure which had been defeated last week. The bill was again voted against and cannot be reintroduced this year. (Story source: http://www.ispla.org/)
These developments do not affect the (informed) tracking of self-owned vehicles, such as with children or employees. The U-Spy store sells a variety of GPS trackers, both real-time and historical, for personal use. Call the store or visit our website to find one that’s best for your needs!
