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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined forces with GPS inventor, Roger L. Easton, to speak out against warrantless GPS tracking. Easton invented the Timation Satellite Navigation System at the Naval Research Laboratory in the early 1970s and was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2006 for this revolutionary technology. The Supreme Court is set to hear a controversial case involving GPS tracking, United States v. Jones, and Easton wanted his opinion known before the ruling.

FBI agents attached a GPS device to Jones’ vehicle without his knowledge, and after their warrant expired. The team failed to get a valid warrant and tracked the suspect for a month, before arresting him on charges of drug possession and conspiracy to distribute. “This is the first case where the Supreme Court will consider automatic, persistent, passive location tracking by law enforcement,” Marcia Hofmann, EFF’s senior staff attorney, stated.

“The government can use location information over time to learn where you go to church, what sort of doctors you go to, what meetings and activities you participate in, and much more. Police should not have blanket permission to install GPS devices and collect detailed information about people’s movements over time without court review.”

The Supreme Court will hear the case in the next few months. An appeals court ruled that evidence against Jones was obtained unconstitutionally, but the government appealed that decision. “If police are allowed to plant GPS devices wherever they please, that’s essentially blanket permission for widespread, ongoing police surveillance without any court supervision,” offered Cindy Cohn, EFF’s legal director. “It’s not hard to see how that kind of leeway would be abused. We hope the Supreme Court takes a close look at how this technology works and act to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans.”

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor