A recent US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices “has caused a ‘sea change’ inside the U.S. Justice Department.” Following the ruling, the FBI turned off an estimated 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use. But how to locate the little buggers to take them home?
From the WSJ, quoting FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann:
These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.
After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.