2010/08/25

paging mr. orwell

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit says that law enforcement agencies are allowed to plant GPS devices on vehicles, even if they are on private property (such as a driveway), and track them. Without a warrant.

Their reasoning was that you, the American citizen, do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in your own yard unless your property is completely surrounded by a fence or wall and have a locked gate. You might be running drugs or planning some kind of attack.

Never mind that any "big cheese" in drugs or terrorism (i.e. someone they really should be finding) probably already checks the vehicle for unwanted "attachments". Car bombs, anyone? Now they'll check for GPS devices, too. I imagine that there are commercially available devices that would be able to locate any transmitters.

Ooh, I can't wait for this one to get to the Supreme Court.

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