GPS Tracking Device

The Controversy about Using a GPS Tracking Device
By Jimmy MacLeod

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 cars 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 may notice personal information that is none of their business, such as a driver taking lunch every 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 may put a GPS tracking device in the car, or they may download GPS tracking technology to their teens’ mobile phones. The teens may or may not be aware that Mom and Dad are monitoring them.

You can bet that a lot of teens think this is an invasion of their privacy.

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 car, and you will at least know where they go in the car. You may have to draw your own conclusions as to what they are doing there….

Most people would agree that this is an invasion of privacy, and most would be offended if they thought you were tracking them. It gets a little stickier when the police use GPS tracking devices.

Police have successfully used GPS tracking devices to solve crimes. Say 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 allowed 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 must 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 allowed 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.

All technology has ethical and moral implications that we have to grapple with. The right to privacy is the ethical dilemma we deal with when we use GPS tracking devices.

Author Details:
Jimmy MacLeod, copywriter for various web sites writing articles about mobile phones and other electrical gadgets.

Article Source: Simply Top Articles

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