Secret GPS Tracking

Last week, a District Four Court of Appeals in Wisconsin ruled in favor of defendant Michael Sveum who was followed by a GPS device that police secretly planted on his car. In fact, the court sanctioned law enforcement’s covert use of GPS attached to vehicles to track anybody’s movements without a warrant.

But on Tuesday, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the state police violated a different suspect’s rights when it attached a GPS tracker to his van without a warrant. Chris Matyszczyk follows technology, law and society for CNET. We asked him to explain these two very different verdicts on warrantless GPS tracking.

(Photo by Just Us 3 via Flickr/Creative Commons)

CNET: Court says police can use GPS to track anyone

New York Times: Court Strikes Down GPS Tracking Without Warrant