The FBI ordered the court to shut off 3,000 GPS bugs, now it cannot find them
A few days ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that the use of tracking GPS devices without a court order was unconstitutional and decided to stop this practice. Since the decision of the court entered into force immediately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was forced on the same day to turn off signal reception from about 3,000 active GPS bugs.
The decision of the Supreme Court has caused serious consequences, which were told by the General Counsel of the FBI Andrew Weissmann (Andrew Weissmann) at a scientific conference at the University of San Francisco. It turns out that the FBI specialists had problems collecting the bugs they had installed. In some cases, Weissmann says, even had to ask the court to issue temporary warrants for surveillance, just to turn on the bug for a while.
Device self-made GPS-bug , which the FBI sets under the bottom of the car
A year ago, a story was published on Habré, as an American student of Arabic origin found a strange device under the bottom of a car, which upon close scrutiny turned out to be an FBI tracking device. Then he was called by agents requesting the return of federal property. This is not an isolated case, Katia Thomas, an animal activist, found a similar bug in her car several years ago. As it has now become known, about 3,000 similar devices were actively used in the United States - all of them were turned off by decision of the Supreme Court.
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According to Weissmann, FBI lawyers are now “fighting” to defend other ordinary, ordinary rights of investigators. For example, they want to ensure that removing the lid of the trash can near the house of the suspect will not be recognized by the court as an encroachment on his personal life. Such concerns of FBI lawyers are quite real, given the position taken by the Supreme Court in the case of covert use of automotive GPS bugs - he decided that a citizen has the right to expect to keep information on the totality of his movements secret, even if these movements were carried out publicly, in the case of the car. Approximately the same dilemma arises with the garbage in the tank, which seems to be a private information, although it is in a public place (on the street).
The decision of the Supreme Court has caused serious consequences, which were told by the General Counsel of the FBI Andrew Weissmann (Andrew Weissmann) at a scientific conference at the University of San Francisco. It turns out that the FBI specialists had problems collecting the bugs they had installed. In some cases, Weissmann says, even had to ask the court to issue temporary warrants for surveillance, just to turn on the bug for a while.
Device self-made GPS-bug , which the FBI sets under the bottom of the car
A year ago, a story was published on Habré, as an American student of Arabic origin found a strange device under the bottom of a car, which upon close scrutiny turned out to be an FBI tracking device. Then he was called by agents requesting the return of federal property. This is not an isolated case, Katia Thomas, an animal activist, found a similar bug in her car several years ago. As it has now become known, about 3,000 similar devices were actively used in the United States - all of them were turned off by decision of the Supreme Court.
')
According to Weissmann, FBI lawyers are now “fighting” to defend other ordinary, ordinary rights of investigators. For example, they want to ensure that removing the lid of the trash can near the house of the suspect will not be recognized by the court as an encroachment on his personal life. Such concerns of FBI lawyers are quite real, given the position taken by the Supreme Court in the case of covert use of automotive GPS bugs - he decided that a citizen has the right to expect to keep information on the totality of his movements secret, even if these movements were carried out publicly, in the case of the car. Approximately the same dilemma arises with the garbage in the tank, which seems to be a private information, although it is in a public place (on the street).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/138991/
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