Eye in the Sky

The Supreme Court just zapped everyone's favorite spy/espionage/"Mission: Impossible" meme — the GPS stuck on the Bad Guy's car to track him while he's traveling someplace.

Of course, the basic problem here was that it was done without a warrant which, fortunately, SCOTUS said was the big problem here. Interestingly, though it was a unanimous decision, the court was split as to the fundamental violation: that it was effectively a search without a warrant, or that it was a violation of privacy without a warrant.

And while it impacted a case where the cops put a GPS tracker on a car and let it run for weeks, it was clear that the justices were also concerned over potential searches using data that's collected without that sort of intrusion. Interesting stuff, but a good civil rights ruling. #ddtb

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Police Use of G.P.S. Is Ruled Unconstitutional
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that putting a tracking device on a suspect’s car violated his rights, although they differed on why.