Creepy - Warrantless GPS Tracking Legal.

[dre]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/27/oregon.gps.surveillance/index.html?hpt=T2

In the 7 or so states subject to that ruling, and for all I know in the rest of the US, and in Canada too, the police can sneak onto your private property and tamper with your vehicle by installing a GPS tracking device on it, then monitor your where abouts. All without a warrant.

Its not over yet though. Two different courts have offered two separate rulings on the question, and it might end up before the supreme court.

Does anyone know of caselaw in Canada that covers this question?

I dont like it (just for the record)

[bloodyminded]

In the 7 or so states subject to that ruling, and for all I know in the rest of the US, and in Canada too, the police can sneak onto your private property and tamper with your vehicle by installing a GPS tracking device on it, then monitor your where abouts. All without a warrant.

Its not over yet though. Two different courts have offered two separate rulings on the question, and it might end up before the supreme court.

Does anyone know of caselaw in Canada that covers this question?

I dont like it (just for the record)

You don't like it? How surprising!

I don't like it either.

[GostHacked]

Who says we innocents are not being monitored. Got nothing to hide, no worries right??

The slip down this slope started quite some time ago. I don't like it either. Get a warrant.

[Bonam]

Sneaking onto people's driveways at night and planting chips in their cars sounds like something out of a totalitarian state where the secret police have unlimited power. This is a clear and unacceptable violation of people's rights to privacy.

I could perhaps see the argument if this power was available to agents of some highly focused counterterrorism agency that dealt only with major threats to the nation, but normal police tracking normal people in this way is clearly wrong.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Bonam

[GostHacked]

If you look hard enough and track someone long enough, eventually you can nail them for something.

[Shady]

What's ironic is that this 9th curcuit court ruled against Arizona's illegal immigration law. But apparently this is a-ok with them.

[eyeball]

Sneaking onto people's driveways at night and planting chips in their cars sounds like something out of a totalitarian state where the secret police have unlimited power. This is a clear and unacceptable violation of people's rights to privacy.

I could perhaps see the argument if this power was available to agents of some highly focused counterterrorism agency that dealt only with major threats to the nation, but normal police tracking normal people in this way is clearly wrong.

The fear of terrorism is exactly how it will come to be applied everywhere. In my town cops tell young people that when they buy pot they're supporting terrorism.

Wherever this fear goes the government pushes this fear it will surely follow, with everything it's got.

Edited August 27, 2010 by eyeball

[Jefferson]

So now you have to check your car for the trackers, which are about the size of a hard drive, hard not to find. Then you have to put it on ebay to sell it. The cops just gave it to you. Generous guys, huh? Wonder how much you could get for one. I'm sure lots of people out there would like to examine it so they can make tracker detectors to sell to criminals. Or you could just stick it on a pizza delivery car and imagine the cops wondering why you're driving all over town.