Small GPS Devices Help Prosecutors Win Convictions

[308Mike]

Linkarooni - I KNEW it was only a matter of time until they started using these things to tell on you. I won't get any of these little spies. Eventually, they'll be linked in with law enforcement to see if you're speeding...... Britain will probably be first.

Small GPS Devices Help Prosecutors Win Convictions

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Like millions of motorists, Eric Hanson used a GPS unit in his Chevrolet TrailBlazer to find his way around. He probably didn't expect that prosecutors would eventually use it too — to help convict him of killing four family members.

Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin GPS device to pinpoint where Hanson had been on the morning after his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings earlier this year and sentenced to death.

Hanson's trial was among recent criminal cases around the country in which authorities used GPS navigation devices to help establish a defendant's whereabouts. Experts say such evidence will almost certainly become more common in court as GPS systems become more affordable and show up in more vehicles.

More..............

[HTRN]

Mike, then you better give up driving altogether - you wouldn't believe how many cars have a built in snitch inside the computer - speed, throttle position, brake, etc. And it's been used numerous times to go after people after a car accident.

People have been saying the same thing about EZpass - but they won't do it - because if they did, people would start dumping them enmasse.

What has happened is this idiot left the thing running, killed 4 people, and the police used it to convict him, same as if they found the murder weapon on the front seat. I don't see them mandating the use of such things to have a government spy in your car. There are far easier methods, that doesn't require the publics cooperation, like speed cameras.


HTRN

[Erik]

Actually, in Europe they are developing new speed camera systems, that wont just take pictures of speeding vehicles. Instead they will take a picture of all vehicles, the stated purpose being to be able to catch those that speed in between cameras.
But since they will store all photos anyway, it's just a matter of time (minutes I'd vager) until they start using it for other purposes too. They'll just find a case like this when they can solve a crime, and then they have an excuse to use it for anything they feel like.

What I wonder is how they manage to get trip information out of the gps? It must have been a built in device that store that information? I have a mobile device myself, that I can move between vehicles. I have a hard time imagining that thing storing any information of where I've been. The memory in it isn't that big... Anyone that knows?

[HTRN]

Most of the better ones have flash memory of some sort, that stores travel information(in case you have to back track), considering that each stored waypoint is in terms of bytes, and megabyte flash memory is in terms of cents per megabyte.. Just because you don't have easy access to it, doesn't mean it isn't stored.


HTRN

[Erik]

OK, well that answers my question. It makes sense to have it in the more expensive models. I bought a cheap one just to try it (I know most of the places I'm going anyway) so I'm pretty sure mine doesn't have a flashmemory, and there's no backtracking in it anyway. I have taken full backups of the content, and gone through the backup, so I'm fairly sure of it. (I wanted to do some hacks in it )
But I agree with what you say, it's pretty common for programs and devices to store information in the background.

Cellphones seems easier to track though, they connect to the towers, and switch between towers, so it's not that hard to track where a cellphone has been at any given time.
Isn't modern technology great?

[308Mike]

They're also doing it with cell phones. Mine has GPS built into it (it's disabled), but it's a service I can have activated once I enable it on my phone. They're already using the technology to see which tower people are connecting to.

If you're gonna' do something, better make sure you turn off all your electronic gadgets while you're still WELL away from the area and don't turn them back on until your where you shut them off.

[HTRN]

Erik, if you want to fool around with GPS, take a look at Sparkfun Electronics - they have a huge amount of stuff for it. Don't know if they'll ship to you though.

Yeah, what's worse is trying to turn the damn GPS off in phones, most people don't know it's there. Good luck finding in the instructions how to turn it off. Not to the phones constantly pinging the cell towers even without the GPS(which because of relative signal strengths they can triangulate you down with surprising accuracy, often down to a coupla blocks).

About the only way to know for sure you aren't being tracked by your phone, is to turn it off, and take the battery out.


HTRN

[mekender]

Actually, in Europe they are developing new speed camera systems, that wont just take pictures of speeding vehicles. Instead they will take a picture of all vehicles, the stated purpose being to be able to catch those that speed in between cameras.
But since they will store all photos anyway, it's just a matter of time (minutes I'd vager) until they start using it for other purposes too. They'll just find a case like this when they can solve a crime, and then they have an excuse to use it for anything they feel like.

What I wonder is how they manage to get trip information out of the gps? It must have been a built in device that store that information? I have a mobile device myself, that I can move between vehicles. I have a hard time imagining that thing storing any information of where I've been. The memory in it isn't that big... Anyone that knows?

In order to maintain a consistent track with the device, it has to communicate with the GPS satellite network. This would create a secure connection with a unique identifier at the very least.

Those sessions can be monitored on the server end without ever touching the actual GPS device. There would be no need to even recover the device from the car, though it would be necessary to prove that it had been in the person's car.

Frankly, it is no surprise at all that this happens. It would be less of a surprise if it wasnt happening.

[308Mike]

About the only way to know for sure you aren't being tracked by your phone, is to turn it off, and take the battery out.

Fixed it for ya'.

[randy]

In order to maintain a consistent track with the device, it has to communicate with the GPS satellite network. This would create a secure connection with a unique identifier at the very least.

First I've ever heard of that. I own multiple GPS units of various types and worked with some of the early military units.

Every one I'm familiar with are receivers only. There's no uplink. They calculate position by using the time differential of the signals from multiple satellites (overly simplified but you get my point).

I know of no civilian GPS with transmitters that connect to the sats. I've never heard of any military ones that do either, but you never know.

My guess is that he had a commercial after market unit and he didn't think to wipe the track memory from it before the Popo grabbed it.

He might also have had something like On-Star in which they can remotely track a vehicle (by the built in cell phone that transmits the received GPS data), but I don't know what kind of track history they keep of vehicle activity unless they've been alerted by a crash sensor or a theft report. Or if the built in GPS unit keeps it's own track memory that can be accessed.