Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
October 8th, 2010“Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car.”
Via: Wired:
A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.
It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
“Finders keepers, losers weepers” is about all I have to say on the matter.
He should ask them to document that it really is their device. If they don’t, they have no claim on it and he should refuse to hand it over.
If they do, great! Then he has proof that the FBI was really tracking him and he should hand the documentation to his lawyer.
Why is the device so large and easily discovered?
Older version? New devices hook into cars electrics, no bulky batt pack needed.
Too late, he already gave it back, but you’re right, he should have made more of the opportunity.
You can see where all this is headed when you think about GPS trackers being attached to cars, and Black Boxes in cars which record the last seconds of driving parameters, and copy machines that record everything they ever made copies of: it won’t be long before new cars will all have GPS trackers connected to data storage that will store location data for everywhere the car has ever been. Law Enforcement will then have the ability to access this data remotely – They Hate Us For Our Freedoms!