Anyone Can Spy

The latest technological invasion of privacy may be the least known but fastest growing of all. It's the GPS tracking unit. You can buy a GPS device for about $250 that is no bigger than a cigarette pack, attach it to any car without the driver's knowledge and watch wherever the vehicle goes while you are at home spying on your computer. It is bad enough when stalking as person by monitoring his or her cell phone, but now hundreds of thousands of Americans and snooping types abroad are using GPS spy trackers that the courts have not quite determined uniformly as to whether the use of them is legal or not.

People spy with them for every imaginable purpose, to track an elderly parent with dementia or a reckless teenage driver, or to spy or stalk a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or an employee. And of course, many criminals use it as an aid in their crimes. Burglars love it, because when using it on a potential target, they can know when the homeowner is out or at home. Ironically, the ones who should be able to use it, law enforcement personnel, are not able to place the device on a car without first obtaining a search warrant from a court.

Courts have ruled placement of a GPS tracker on a suspect's car by the police to be a search and require court orders be obtained by the police before using them. But obtaining court orders take time, time which can be used by the suspects to escape detection.
Sales of GPS trackers exceeded 100,000 units last year as employers and individuals, for a multitude of largely unregulated uses and reasons, are growing in number, raising new questions about privacy and a legal system that has not kept pace with technology. Some private detectives say that so many married person who are suspicious or curious to find if their spouse is cheating are using GPS tracking to spy that it has caused their detective business to plummet. Sellers of the units estimate that over 30,000 parents now track their teenage children's' driving habits with GPS tracking.

But even if used legally and out of concern for family members, the secret use of GPS devices poses ethical questions about the right to privacy. With each technological device introduced we seem to lose more of our right to privacy, and yet not realize or care about the loss. Humans are so enamored and addicted to technology today that they rarely ponder questions about abuse of the gadgets. So far, the courts that have ruled on use of GPS tracking have said that if the vehicle being driven is owned (registered in his or her name.

as in a husband and wife who are both registered as car owner or a employer using it on company owned cars that employees use) by the person tracking with it, it is a legal use, though the person driving should be told they are subject to being tracked. Placing it on someone else's private car has been seen as illegal in almost all cases (police search warranted use excluded). But anyone curious and devious enough to spy on another with a GPS tracking unit will probably do it, legal or not.

I wonder when technology addicts will ever ponder the cost effect of unrestricted use. They better hurry before it's too late to even think in private.