Uh, any smart phone? Many/most of us are being tracked.
many/most/all
GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
71–80 of 151 posts
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first article mentions a Supreme Court case in 2011 to "determine if authorities can track U.S. citizens with GPS vehicle trackers without a warrant" - anyone know what that case was or how it was decided?
9-0 unanimous that the police must have a warrant prior to using a GPS vehicle tracker. The reasonings differ among the justices but the vote was unanimous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Jones_%282012%...
The split in reasons did lead to the fundamental question being sort of dodged. The majority opinion decided the case on quite narrow grounds: that the physical installation of the GPS device violated the 4th amendment, because installing it involved tampering with someone's personal property (the car) without a warrant. Four justices would have gone further and argued it would require a warrant to operate such a GPS tracker regardless of how it was installed, but the majority left that question unanswered.
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can replace "requested" with "threatened everything short of violence"
It's not like they don't know where it is, you'd think they could just go get it themselves.
Well they can't bust into your home and take it without a warrant, and it's probably easier to bully into handing it over than them admitting they done fucked up and getting a warrant.
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#74A friend of mine hired someone to gather data on his cheating wife. A device that looked similar to this was used on her car. $400 for a month of real-time location data. Maybe this has nothing to do with conference this person was attending.
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#75http://imgur.com/a/Z1hyd has a few parts labeled
theres a main processor which is way overpowered (the big TQFP part) which is covered by a plug-in 2G GSM/GPRS modem. You can 'sniff' the modem control pins, its almost certainly the standard plain 'AT' command set used for these modems, at 9600 or 57600 baud, 3.3V logic
The plug in module looks a lot like a SIM300 or Spreadtrum 5100b. It probably had an IMEI sticker that was pulled off. Theres probably a dozen makers of nearly identical modems during that time period. This one looks fairly old since its a plug-in type. I'd guess the GSM module is at least 5 yrs old
On the other side is a standard 32-pin NAND flash, you could desolder and then use a NAND-reader kit (google etc) to suck the data off. its probably just the GPS coordinates stored between modem data uploads.
SIM holder, some crystals, power circuitry, and a (95% sure) uBlox GPS - the uBlox have that funny shape and pinout. uBlox have high sensitivity so a good choice! unclear which generation this us, they're up to Neo-8. You could decap it to find out.
probably the most fun could be had by first figuring out the RX/TX pins from the microcontroller to the GSM/GPRS module, then soldering thin wires to that and listening with a UART TTL cable. Put in a new SIM, wait a few seconds for the GSM module to get onto the cell network, then quickly faraday it up and see what website, IP address or phone number the micro is trying to connect to. ymmv tho, might just be a random drop point.
(theres a bunch of chips with no clear markings, could be motion/accel/gyro or other sensors - @ioerror if you post up the #s on each chip it'll be easier to tell! :)
edit: i thought about the huge coin cell battery backup. its a bit odd, quite large sized! if its well designed, the microcontroller will detect that the battery has been disconnected, and while on backup coin cell power quickly erase the NAND flash and microcontroller memory :(
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously. It's extremely important that we as engineers be ethical about what we build. If you are enabling a surveillance state, I think many people would consider that to be harmful to public welfare.
There is a lot of ethical uses of such trackers (e.g. a company tracking its own vehicles, shipping container tracking, etc.). We can't assume the developer of the original board knowingly designed it for evil purposes. Full disclosure: I design smart-grid and telemetry applications, including a GSM + GPS device (GPS was initially used for getting accurate timestamps, but we also added positioning registers, which ma…
Interesting, I always thought that google using it for TrueTime was a strange use-case, but I guess it was the original use-case!
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that a lot of people genuinely think "If a large institution approved of it, it must be good". Which is a lot scarier than people not giving a damn about good or evil. Morality is not something you outsource.
The bigger problem is that many potentially evil things are really cool.
Things cannot be evil in and of themselves. It takes sentient intention that you judge to be so for it to be (to you).
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#78soon these will be built in, a great win for humanity.
i guess all the downvotes mean gps transponders won't be built in then! that's how it works isn't it?
What do you mean by "GPS transponders"?
A transponder replies to an interrogation with a squitter response.
Navstar satellites zip along merrily broadcasting to anyone who will listen ( regardless of the receiver's ability to process the signal ). You as an intending user don't communicate with them at all.
In the receiver there is no transmission capability related to GPS. Why would there be? The only uplink to which Navstar sats will listen is that from Boeing's system control center ( or presumably a spoof thereof ).
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#79During the ' Troubles' in Northern Ireland, chassis inspection mirrors were a common sight.
These were large convex mirrors mounted horizontally on castors and with a long handle. They were slid under the car to look for suspicious packages that may have been attached covertly with malicious intent.
Very quick to use and were widely issued to individuals who might have been at risk. So it was common to see people using them each morning before heading off to work ( by a different route each day of course ).
Sounds like there might be a new market for them.... I should have bought a few hundred when they were being sold as surplus!
Re: GPS tracking device found on an activist's car
#80http://imgur.com/a/Z1hyd has a few parts labeled theres a main processor which is way overpowered (the big TQFP part) which is covered by a plug-in 2G GSM/GPRS modem. You can 'sniff' the modem control pins, its almost certainly the standard plain 'AT' command set used for these modems, at 9600 or 57600 baud, 3.3V logic The plug in module looks a lot like a SIM300 or Spreadtrum 5100b. It probably had an IMEI sticker t…
If only they could send you the device so you do could a proper teardown video :)