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Comment by kevin_thibedeau | Hacker News Reader

This has already happened in the US. Pretty galling that the FBI requested one to be returned:

http://www.wired.com/2011/11/gps-tracker-times-two/ http://www.wired.com/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/

Would be interesting if they could lift any prints from the tape on this newest one and publish them. I can't imagine it's easy to apply duct tape with gloves on.

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The first article mentions a Supreme Court case in 2011 to "determine if authorities can track U.S. citizens with GPS vehicle trackers without a warrant" - anyone know what that case was or how it was decided?

9-0 unanimous that the police must have a warrant prior to using a GPS vehicle tracker. The reasonings differ among the justices but the vote was unanimous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Jones_%282012%...

Faith in humanity for today restored!

The split in reasons did lead to the fundamental question being sort of dodged. The majority opinion decided the case on quite narrow grounds: that the physical installation of the GPS device violated the 4th amendment, because installing it involved tampering with someone's personal property (the car) without a warrant. Four justices would have gone further and argued it would require a warrant to operate such a GPS tracker regardless of how it was installed, but the majority left that question unanswered.

You can replace "requested" with "threatened everything short of violence"

It's not like they don't know where it is, you'd think they could just go get it themselves.

Well they can't bust into your home and take it without a warrant, and it's probably easier to bully into handing it over than them admitting they done fucked up and getting a warrant.

They wouldn't know where it was after I disconnected the battery.

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