Re: Big Brother One Step Closer?

James Richard Tyrer <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.kde.cafe
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Neil Stevens wrote:
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> On Monday May 12, 2003 11:31, Andreas Pour wrote:
> 
>>The Washington Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on whether police
>>require a warrant to attach a GPS device to a vehicle.
>>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/121572_gps12.html
>>
>>The facts in the case, unfortunately, are very bad, and unfortunately it
>>seems as though the government could have obtained a warrant if it had
>>tried.  Now the government will make some lame arguments about, "but the
>>killer will get off".
>>
>>If a GPS device is OK without a warrant, I see no reason why a
>>microphone and camera are not also OK without a warrant.
>>
>>The race to totalitarianism continues . . . .
> 
> 
> Do you think that police should need a warrant before following a car?  
> before following a person?
> 
No, I don't as long as it is on public property.

The question of the right to privacy in your automobile is not clearly 
settled in US law.  My personal opinion is that a warrant should be 
required to enter your automobile.  So, attaching something to it is 
probably a gray area that needs to be decided by the court.

Note the important distinction here: the GPS device *can* be used to 
follow an automobile on private property without the owner's 
permission.  This is an important distinction.

The question appears to be if this is any different from attaching a 
RF beeper to an automobile to make it easier to follow.

--
JRT


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