Live data from Hacker News

GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

sciencealert.com

101–110 of 159 posts

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#101
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did, yes. I hope you have a better day.

Okay thanks, so here's what I don't understand. When there is video evidence that someone was in their house the whole time, and given that everyone who has used a GPS knows it can easily be inaccurate by 30ft, why in the world would the judge trust the ankle monitor accuracy over video footage they see with their own eyes that directly contradicts it? Something about this just doesn't seem very plausible, especially…

I don't know what to tell you besides yes, it's really that bad. A lot of it is just people passing the buck down the road, a lot of it (at the time) was covid, a lot of it was the difficulty of people on EM to publicly talk about their situation. Defense attorneys just want to get their clients out of jail and a lot of the EM stuff is a distraction to that. It's very much a, "we'll put in a ticket" sort of situation across many moving parts.

Lawyers began telling their clients to film themselves in their homes at all times so that they could prove to judges that they were in their homes when the devices went off. That's advice they give because the risks of not doing that are going back into jail. And to prove all that, you still have to go through all that process, filming yourself, etc. It's truly bad.

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#102
post #12

This is exactly the sort of thing that leads to people getting reincarcerated after their electronic monitoring devices mistakenly report them leaving their homes. Some reporting I did on the topic a few years back: https://chicagoreader.com/news/many-on-house-arrest-in-cook-...

> This As in, GPS being off by 33 feet? > leads to people getting reincarcerated I'm reading your article and it seems to be about police coming to check and realizing that the reporting of being miles away was in error, not people getting reincarcerted because of GPS incorrectly reporting they moved ~30 feet too far? One of these is much more insane than the other.

>This

You're cherry-picking a single word to start a pointless internet argument? Calm down. Nobody claimed this exact event lead to problems for anyone.

This is what OP actually said:

>>This is exactly the sort of thing

Yes, this absolutely is the sort of thing. No, 33 feet isn't "the thing" but GPS glitching is the sort of thing at a different increment.

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This As in, GPS being off by 33 feet? > leads to people getting reincarcerated I'm reading your article and it seems to be about police coming to check and realizing that the reporting of being miles away was in error, not people getting reincarcerted because of GPS incorrectly reporting they moved ~30 feet too far? One of these is much more insane than the other.

>This You're cherry-picking a single word to start a pointless internet argument? Calm down. Nobody claimed this exact event lead to problems for anyone. This is what OP actually said: >>This is exactly the sort of thing Yes, this absolutely is the sort of thing . No, 33 feet isn't "the thing" but GPS glitching is the sort of thing at a different increment.

Okay but the claim is people are being re-arrested because of this "sort of thing". But I read the linked article, and it doesn't mention anyone getting re-arrested. There is only one situation described where the person is arrested and then let go after the cops got proof the alert was faulty.

So yes, it absolutely sucks that this technology is so inconvenient and bad but at the same time, the author and GP claims are not proved or truthful in totality (even in the article they posted).

We can agree GPS tracking sucks but also question claims that are not true. Also telling people to "calm down" over text when they are not even talking to you is very passive aggresive for no reason.

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#104
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You've essentially claimed police/judges are doing something rather stupid and terrible." Yes, yes I am. You really need to realize just how unbelievably fucking arbitrary the criminal courts are. At every level. They're not tech people. To answer your question, I have examples of motions by prosecutors to suspend people from the EM program where they specifically cite specific data points just barely out of their h…

> Btw, the courts are public and you should try some criminal courts watching. Pick a random day and just go. So you could find an example easily but you don't want to? Or you're suggesting court watching in general and not to find an example? "I have an example I won't share" is better than nothing, I guess. But you were being snarky before you even said that much, when you were just linking your article and not say…

[deleted]

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This You're cherry-picking a single word to start a pointless internet argument? Calm down. Nobody claimed this exact event lead to problems for anyone. This is what OP actually said: >>This is exactly the sort of thing Yes, this absolutely is the sort of thing . No, 33 feet isn't "the thing" but GPS glitching is the sort of thing at a different increment.

Okay but the claim is people are being re-arrested because of this "sort of thing". But I read the linked article, and it doesn't mention anyone getting re-arrested. There is only one situation described where the person is arrested and then let go after the cops got proof the alert was faulty. So yes, it absolutely sucks that this technology is so inconvenient and bad but at the same time, the author and GP claims a…

Consider that, from the justice system's point of view, there's no distinction between between someone breaking house arrest for a drug fix versus due to GPS error. They don't have the resource to investigate every single violation, so they always just assume that the device is infallible and that the human is lying.

That's why there's no data for someone getting rearrested due to GPS, and why the few instances where someone do prove an error is concerning.

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#106
post #92

It seems worth mentioning that the last time GPS had issues like this afaik, it was due to the US utilizing 'selective availability' due to national security issues. We used it somewhat famously during the 9/11 attacks. Also the page 404's via archive.org, but information formerly from gps.gov can still be found here: https://archive.ph/trwOo Edit: The selective availability page moved to https://www.gps.gov/selectiv…

> We used it somewhat famously during the 9/11 attacks.

I have not been able to locate any source that backs up this claim.

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#107
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This As in, GPS being off by 33 feet? > leads to people getting reincarcerated I'm reading your article and it seems to be about police coming to check and realizing that the reporting of being miles away was in error, not people getting reincarcerted because of GPS incorrectly reporting they moved ~30 feet too far? One of these is much more insane than the other.

The story is about GPS errors which end up making life hell for people under monitoring since they end up generating a Police response. If 80% alerts were false, then an error like this can result in a surge of these alerts. It is an important story to tell.

[deleted]

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#108
post #12

This is exactly the sort of thing that leads to people getting reincarcerated after their electronic monitoring devices mistakenly report them leaving their homes. Some reporting I did on the topic a few years back: https://chicagoreader.com/news/many-on-house-arrest-in-cook-...

[dead]

Re: GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

#109
post #92

It seems worth mentioning that the last time GPS had issues like this afaik, it was due to the US utilizing 'selective availability' due to national security issues. We used it somewhat famously during the 9/11 attacks. Also the page 404's via archive.org, but information formerly from gps.gov can still be found here: https://archive.ph/trwOo Edit: The selective availability page moved to https://www.gps.gov/selectiv…

> We used it somewhat famously during the 9/11 attacks. I have not been able to locate any source that backs up this claim.

Indeed, the link in the parent even says it hasn't been used since May 2000. So, yeah, it certainly wasn't used "famously".

Perhaps the commenter is thinking of the fact it was used globally prior to May 1, 2000. From a civilian point of view, GPS appeared to be invented around this time but it had actually been available for a couple of decades already, just in a degraded form that wasn't very useful.

Post reply on HN