The Controversy about Using a GPS Tracking Device
GPS tracking devices have gazillions of uses, and most of them are beneficial. There are, however, some privacy issues involved with using GPS devices that create controversy.
GPS Tracking Devices in Fleets
Many companies that deploy vehicles or trucks use GPS tracking devices to keep track of their trucks. Most major trucking companies can tell you where all of their trucks are at any given moment. Similarly, repair companies and taxi companies can monitor the locations of their trucks in order to dispatch them more efficiently.
Some people feel that this gives the companies who use GPS tracking devices too much information about their drivers, though. Trucking companies can tell how long a trucker has been on the road, if he has taken any unscheduled side trips and when and for how long he stops for meals or sleep. Dispatchers might notice personal information that is none of their business, such as a driver taking lunch each day at the same address, and it’s not his home. Some people feel that this constitutes an invasion of privacy.
GPS Tracking Devices and Teens
Some parents use GPS tracking devices to keep track of their teens. They might put a GPS tracking device in the vehicle, or they might download GPS tracking technology to their teens’ mobile phones. The teens may or might not be aware that Mother and Father are monitoring them.
You can bet that a lot of teens think this is an invasion of their privacy.
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Surveillance with GPS Tracking Devices
Do you wonder if your spouse is having an affair? Want to know what your brother-in-law is up to? Hide a GPS tracking device on their vehicle, and you’ll at least know where they go in the vehicle. You might have to draw your own conclusions as to what they are doing there….
Most people would concur that this is an invasion of privacy, and most would be offended if they thought you were tracking them. It gets a tiny stickier when the police use GPS tracking devices.
Police have successfully used GPS tracking devices to solve crimes. State the police place a GPS tracking device on the vehicle of someone they suspect of being a murderer. The murderer leads them to his victim’s grave. Is this an invasion of privacy? Should the police be granted to use GPS tracking devices this way?
The courts agree that this could very well be an invasion of privacy. The police can use GPS tracking devices to collect information about a suspect, but they’ve to have a search warrant to do so.
If the police must have a search warrant to use a GPS tracking device, should a private citizen be able to use one without a warrant? Should private citizens even be granted to use GPS tracking devices at all? The right to information and the right to privacy are in conflict sometimes, and this is one of those times.
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