Should the Govt Be Allowed toTrack You Via GPS?: Via News and Analysis by PC Magazine.

Should the government be able to surreptitiously install GPS tracking devices on your vehicle without a warrant? The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation argued this week that such activity is a violation of civil liberties.

"This gives police unbridled discretion to collect location data on everyone, even if there are no reasonable grounds for suspicion," EFF civil liberties director Jennifer Granick said in a statement. "Investigators could track Americans on a whim -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a joint amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. on Tuesday arguing that the practice constitutes unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The groups' filing focuses on the case of Antoine Jones, a Maryland man who was sentenced to life in prison last year on drugs charges after police seized 213 pounds of cocaine – reportedly one of the largest busts ever in the D.C. area.

During their investigation of Jones, however, police attached a GPS device to his vehicle without a warrant. The device tracked his whereabouts for a month, recording his vehicle movements and locations every 10 seconds, and amassing 3,106 pages of data.

"The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that a warrant is required when police use advanced technology to obtain detailed information about Americans' activities," the filing said. "Remote GPS tracking is such a technology."

Supreme Court cases in the early 1980's allowed the police to use radio "beepers" to keep tabs on vehicles they were following on public roads, but those cases specifically banned "dragnet-style law enforcement practices, or technological intrusion into private places," EFF said.

In the Jones case, EFF argued, police monitored Jones from afar.

"FBI agents did not actually follow Jones' vehicle as it made its way from place to place," the filing said. "Instead, they made use of advanced satellite and computer technology to remotely monitor Jones' movements across public and private areas."

The EFF and ACLU are concerned that such activity might set a dangerous precedent.

The fact that prices on GPS systems have dropped in recent years while their accuracy has improved "would allow law enforcement to create a massive database of Americans' movements without any judicial oversight whatsoever," EFF suggested.

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