January 12, 2005 11:00 AM PST
Snooping by satellite
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the court ruled, saying the bug did not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Privacy intrusion?
A handful of courts have veered in the other direction, saying GPS technology is so powerful and can reveal so much about a person's life that it requires strict judicial oversight.
The "use of GPS tracking devices is a particularly intrusive method of surveillance, making it possible to acquire an enormous amount of personal information about the citizen under circumstances where the individual is unaware that every single vehicle trip taken and the duration of every single stop may be recorded by the government," the Washington Supreme Court said in the Jackson murder case in September 2003. "Citizens of this state have a right to be free from the type of governmental intrusion that occurs when a GPS device is attached to a citizen's vehicle...A warrant is required for installation of these devices."
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| Related story Big boss is watching  Wireless companies are rolling out new GPS services designed to track mobile workers. | | ||
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Some legal scholars fear that when the U.S. Supreme Court eventually weighs in on GPS tracking, it will side with police over privacy. "Unless it changes its view, it's unlikely that the court will think the same way as the Washington Supreme Court," said Dan Solove, a law professor at George Washington University. "The court has a very narrow and crabbed understanding of privacy. If something's not totally secret, you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy."
GPS tracking--even when bugs are installed by police armed with a court order--can be imperfect. One bug used by police to track convicted murderer Scott Peterson sometimes developed glitches that showed him driving at about 30,000 miles per hour. Judge Alfred Delucchi ruled the data could be admitted during Peterson's trial, which appears to have been the first such decision in California.
Even with the occasional glitches, police see great potential in GPS tracking systems, like OnStar, that are built into more expensive cars--and that most people believe will be activated only in emergencies. In one North Carolina case, police used the built-in OnStar system in a 2000 Chevrolet Suburban truck to locate it and arrest the driver, who had bought it with a fake certified check.
An even more creative method of vehicle tracking arose when the FBI used such a system for audio eavesdropping. OnStar and other remote assistance products permit passengers to call an operator for help in an emergency. The FBI realized the feature could be useful for bugging a vehicle and remotely activated it to eavesdrop on what passengers were saying. (The 9th Circuit shot down that scheme in 2003, on the grounds that it rendered the system useless in emergencies.)
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- Thomas Jefferson
At least true communism doesnt where by natural resources are distributed evenly among all people and it is their right to have their fair share.
But you must be speaking of the bastardized version that has been so prevailant through the ages where the government owns everything and doles it out as they see fit.
That seems more like an elaborate monarchy to me but thats just me.
Not that I disagree with your point. In fact I do.
I just hate it when people use it as a swear word when the world has never seen true communism which is arguably more free than capitalism.
As for your comment about having no fear, please take your head out of the sand. People are wrongly accused and convicted quite often. You are in extreme denial if you think it can't happen to you.
It is people like you who are allowing the government to take away our right systematically. You are what is wrong with america today.
From Max Hedroom, episode 6.
Blanks 5/5/87. The "Blanks" are the invisible people, the ones who don't appear on any computer records. Simon Peller, newly elected city official, is doing his best to put them all in prison and the Blanks, in return, are doing their best to wreck the entire computer network, which doesn't exactly endear them to the now-TV-less general public.
Here: www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot
They don't even have to tell you if they go into your house and take things, anymore, or serve you with a search warrant.
People have been warning you about your vanishing privacy for decades.
Those like James Bovard wrote rather eye-opening books like "Shakedown: How the Government Screws You from A to Z" and "Lost Rights : The Destruction of American Liberty". Robert Ellis Smith wrote another good one called "Our Vanishing Privacy : And What you Can Do to Protect Yours".
Yet there's idiots who willingly give out their Social Security Numbers here in the US to practically everybody, even stores, just to get discounts on their products.
Guess they don't realize that you can't change your SSN, and it can be used to get credit cards in your name and services like utlities. Once that number gets out, you're screwed for life! Want to see how easy it is to get this information? Go to an information broker. LOL Cnet itself did a segment on them once with Richard Hart.
Haven't been to the library lately? How about the music store?
Try one of Jello Biafra's 'spoken word' albums. You'll hear about all kinds of things you'll never hear the mainstream news media tell you about.
As for the Bill of Rights, itself; I don't think that any of them have survived intact, and several of them, if taken in the spirit that Thomas Jefferson intended would be deemed illegal now.
This may give you a clue: www.cyberwolfman.com/quotes.htm
Even the 13th Amendment (the one regarding slavery) is only good for toilet paper, now. They allow groups to promote slavery in chat programs all over the Internet. Don't believe me? Try looking for things in them like gor and gorean. They've virtually taken over the 3D chat programs, too.
Don't bother complaining to the FBI about slavery, though. Many of us already have, and with no results, or replies to our letters. Don't think they care as long as it's not in the mainstream news media. If it's not, it might as well not exist.
Can't wait until you guys find out about the roboflies... The stuff in the sci-fi books like Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" are being created in the labs right now.
But I've already got my own little 'eye on the world' (www.cyberwolfman.com/vidfeeds.jpg). ;-)
stop the civil war!!
A good website to check on this is surveillanceissues.com
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