(CNN) -- Law enforcement officers may secretly place a GPS device on a person's car without seeking a warrant from a judge, according to a recent federal appeals court ruling in California. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/27/oregon.gps.surveillance/index.html?hpt=T1
I saw that too. Infuriating. There is a big difference between using these methods, and having an officer follow a suspect. Automating law enforcement is, practically speaking, just like expanding the police force, and a society may not want that many cops around, whether it can afford them or not.
It is hard to argue against law enforcement on this issue because you don't really have an expectation of privacy for the external side of the automobile in a public location such as roads and highways. To them this is an extension of the law that allows the use of visual and electronic means to track vehicles from the air. There is however, nothing preventing you from removing the tracking device if you can find it.
Maybe I misread the article, but it was a car in someone's driveway that got the device. As for nothing, read no law, preventing its removal, well, that's next. Edit: and tracking from the air gets back to my point: it's not so highly leveraged. Every decade seems to see more of this power growth taking place, and every decade it's dismissed as no cause for concern, because the increments are so small.
All these invasions of privacy are the result of the war on drugs. Legalize drugs and there is no reason for it. We could also save billions and maybe prevent mexico from turning into somalia.
Disagree with "all". Power expanding and protecting itself is just as much a motive. But I agree about the war on drugs. It's funny, we worship as a god the power of the marketplace; we note the power our consumers have, being behind some two thirds of economic activity; and yet we spend all this money on curtailing supply instead of demand, LOL.