Illegal Use of Trackers

[Marigold Devin]

Every day, even when I am miles away from Second Life, something sweeps my mind right back. When is it ever justified to use a tracking device? (And this happened in England - I was gobsmacked!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-23588092

[Pie Serendipity]

I track my kids via their mobile phones.

Hell, I'm paying for them!

The phones AND the kids!

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Here is some additional information regarding this subject...

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/category/gps+tracking/gps+tracking+laws.do

 

[Marigold Devin]

Somehow my mother always knew what I was up to and with whom, even though such devices were not available when I was a kid.

But now, if I was a parent, I would want something with a "teleport back to me" button on it, so I could bring them back to safety immediately.

[Marigold Devin]

It was the first time I had ever seen one of these devices used for real here in UK. Only in TV cop shows had I seen it happen before. The West Yorkshire Fire Service ended up having to cough up £11,000 in compensation to the woman, who they suspected was moonlighting another job while off work with anxiety and depression (and probably paranoia!!).

[KarenMichelle Lane]

I so understand. Here in the US we've come to expect these things on our corporate supplied cars and corporate supplied phones. The laws on this are very iffy. In some states if you park your car only in your driveway you have an expected assumption of privacy from this sort of thing. The argument goes - but as soon as you choose to drive onto a public road  you willing give up that expectation. Civil Laws are all over the place on this and it is different State by State.

We have such a huge fraud problem in the US that Companies large & Small use these tactics to uncover it and many times cross legal boundaries in the process.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

oh if i ever found out my work was pulling that crap..i would go to their daddy and tell on them so bad..

the founder and me talk all the time for hours sometimes..

His boys run the company now and is always talking about some of the decisions they make..

oh he would come out of his skin if they pulled that on me..

 

i would wear them out and then some..

[PeterCanessa Oh]

The husband of one of my colleagues pays for his and her iPhones.  So he claims the 'right' to use the GPS tracking on hers to see where she is at any time.  He is also quoted as saying "I never apologise to people because I never do anything wrong."

You have probably already decided whether you like him or not.

 

[Pie Serendipity]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

The husband of one of my colleagues pays for his and her iPhones.  So he claims the 'right' to use the GPS tracking on hers to see where she is at any time.  He is also quoted as saying "I never apologise to people because I never do anything wrong."

You have probably already decided whether you like him or not.

 

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She obviously does.

Or perhaps she just likes his money.

Or maybe they are in a mutually acceptable D/s relationship.

Or maybe she lies.

So if you have already decided whether you like him or not you may be considered precipitously judgmental.

[Marigold Devin]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

The husband of one of my colleagues pays for his and her iPhones.  So he claims the 'right' to use the GPS tracking on hers to see where she is at any time.  He is also quoted as saying "I never apologise to people because I never do anything wrong."

You have probably already decided whether you like him or not.

 

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My immediate reaction was not to judge whether or not I like the husband, but to laugh out loud at his apparent gross insecurities and trust issues.

What has the world come to?!

[Marigold Devin]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

I so understand. Here in the US we've come to expect these things on our corporate supplied cars and corporate supplied phones. The laws on this are very iffy. In some states if you park your car only in your driveway you have an expected assumption of privacy from this sort of thing. The argument goes - but as soon as you choose to drive onto a public road  you willing give up that expectation. Civil Laws are all over the place on this and it is different State by State.

We have such a huge fraud problem in the US that Companies large & Small use these tactics to uncover it and many times cross legal boundaries in the process.

 

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I don't doubt that the UK is becoming more and more like the USA, and so far there have been many areas where we have had a very softly softly approach to crimes such as fraud, drugs, etc. Only a few of our police are even issued with guns (and on the rare occasion they use them, there is usually a massive inquiry, and often suspensions of police personnel). 

It is a crazy world, and getting crazier.

[Marigold Devin]

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Ceka Cianci wrote:

oh if i ever found out my work was pulling that crap..i would go to their daddy and tell on them so bad..

the founder and me talk all the time for hours sometimes..

His boys run the company now and is always talking about some of the decisions they make..

oh he would come out of his skin if they pulled that on me..

 

i would wear them out and then some..

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The menfolk at your place of work should not underestimate the power of a woman

[Ceka Cianci]

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Marigold Devin wrote:

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Ceka Cianci wrote:

oh if i ever found out my work was pulling that crap..i would go to their daddy and tell on them so bad..

the founder and me talk all the time for hours sometimes..

His boys run the company now and is always talking about some of the decisions they make..

oh he would come out of his skin if they pulled that on me..

 

i would wear them out and then some..

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The menfolk at your place of work should not underestimate the power of a woman

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would be funny to be able to take it off my car and sneak it onto one of their cars..

PI:ya she keeps going to your brothers house ..like all the time!!

they must be very close as much as she is over there..

 

oh that bastage trator brother of mine!! \o/..

and her..seeing mah dad and mah brother!!\o/

 

oh these trackers could be fun lol

[Perrie Juran]

Crazy stuff.

Insurance Fraud is a real problem.  We won't discuss how Insurance Companies here in The U.S. defraud us, that is a separate subject,  But people who defraud the Insurance Companies and Businesses in general are a real problem.  One of the News Feeds I subscribe to contains daily stories about people getting busted through their own idiocy for it.  For instance, posting a video of them playing golf when supposedly they are flat on their back with a back injury.

I once had a fellow employee get busted for something like this.  He had called in sick for work.  He got caught a block away from where we worked bowling.  The idiot had drove his company car to the bowling alley and the boss driving by noticed it in the parking lot.

People who engage in fraud make it hard on those who don't.  The last company I worked for required I go to and get a Doctors note if I called in sick two days in a row.  And they didn't pay for the appointment.

We've got a big problem with OnStar Auto Security here.  There are some new cars that it comes pre-installed as a standard feature and there is actually no way to turn it off.   Even if you don't subscribe to their service they still track you.

New York’s senior senator Charles Schumer wants the feds to investigate OnStar’s controversial new privacy policy, and demanded the Detroit navigation-and-emergency company refrain from monitoring vehicles after customers cancel service.

“By tracking drivers even after they’ve cancelled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory,” Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for the Federal Trade Commission to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company’s actions constitute an unfair trade practice.”

OnStar last week began e-mailing customers about its update to the privacy policy, which grants OnStar the right to sell GPS-derived and other data in an anonymized format. That data might include a vehicle’s location, speed, odometer reading and seatbelt usage. Schumer also asked the company, a General Motors subsidiary, not to sell that data.

OnStar said it does not sell the data, but reserves that right. And the company, with six million customers, said it will turn off the two-way communication between a former customer and the service upon request — though OnStar will continue to track former customers who simply cancel their account.

LINK

 

Crazy stuff.

I don't see anything onerous about a company checking up on an employee but with out probable cause the stuff in that article is taking things way to far.

[jwenting]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

I so understand. Here in the US we've come to expect these things on our corporate supplied cars and corporate supplied phones. The laws on this are very iffy. In some states if you park your car only in your driveway you have an expected assumption of privacy from this sort of thing. The argument goes - but as soon as you choose to drive onto a public road  you willing give up that expectation. Civil Laws are all over the place on this and it is different State by State.

We have such a huge fraud problem in the US that Companies large & Small use these tactics to uncover it and many times cross legal boundaries in the process.

 

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company cars is one thing, the company can fit tracking devices to those (though they will in most places have to notify employees of the fact).

Hiring someone to illicitly place one on a private car is another matter entirely.

[Freya Mokusei]

Mostly the UK is immitating the US on distraction politics. The spy-thing is a side-line, the increase of the earnings divide (on both sides of the ocean) was intentional, best way to secure the population is to militarise government property, withdraw rights on protesting and access to information/education, and a marked increase in short-term convictions/over-criminalisation. To go a step further (slightly into tin-foil territory), look into the over-use of private security (and the abuses resulting from it) - the effects of this are still spreading as beat-police shrink.

Domestic siege tactics 101. These people have been entrenched for a long time already.

This news also broke a few years ago:-

Local Councils spy on Dog Foulers - They even hired undercover dogwalkers (and presumably, undercover dogs)

Over-use of CCTV on council property - Take a look at some council-owned rooftops sometime. The number of extra-long range cameras on them borders on impressive.

>50% of UK Councils spying over Refuse Collection - Along with parking violations, continues to be a significant income stream.

Rarer but also bizarre cases - Where government agencies barely concern themselves with the law.

Marked increase in low to medium air traffic carrying high resolution or long distance imaging equipment, and especially those fitted with thermal imaging.

It's gonna be fun. I hate sounding like a certain Forumite who likes bold text but there's a lot of potential for harm here. Cory Doctorow (SL Founder, CloudParty, billions of other relevance) had this to say over the weekend:

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Cory Doctorow - MyBroadband

wrote:

You should care about surveillance because you all know people who can be compromised, socially, sexually or health-wise. And finally, you should care about surveillance because once the system for surveillance is built into the networks and the phones, bad guys (or dirty cops) can use it to attack you.

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[Marigold Devin]

Thanks everyone for input so far.

I've been reading up a lot more about what is and isn't allowed in real life regarding tracking/spying on other people.

Knocks the paranoid rants people have about spy gear in Second Life into a cocked hat that's for sure.

@ Freya, the links you provided were incredibly eye opening. I know of areas where CCTV has increased a lot, but in spite of their being warnings up that CCTV are in my home area, there are none around.

My neighbours do keep getting caught on Google Maps though, luckily doing nothing more sinister than chatting on doorsteps (although they should know better, having lived through a world war - careless talk costs lives, and all that :matte-motes-wink-tongue: )

They could stick surveillance cameras on my brothers house if it would help keep the number of people allowing their mutts to crap outside his back gate down. If I had a gun I could probably do the job myself (half-joking).

I remember seeing a demo on the bin spying thing.

Crazy world we living in.

[Pie Serendipity]

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Marigold Devin wrote:

Thanks everyone for input so far.

I've been reading up a lot more about what is and isn't allowed in real life regarding tracking/spying on other people.

Knocks the paranoid rants people have about spy gear in Second Life into a cocked hat that's for sure.

@ Freya, the links you provided were incredibly eye opening. I know of areas where CCTV has increased a lot, but in spite of their being warnings up that CCTV are in my home area, there are none around.

My neighbours do keep getting caught on Google Maps though, luckily doing nothing more sinister than chatting on doorsteps (although they should know better, having lived through a world war - careless talk costs lives, and all that :matte-motes-wink-tongue: )

They could stick surveillance cameras on my brothers house if it would help keep the number of people allowing their mutts to crap outside his back gate down. If I had a gun I could probably do the job myself (half-joking).

I remember seeing a demo on the bin spying thing.

Crazy world we living in.

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If those are your neighbours then you DO realise we now know where you live . . .

[Marigold Devin]

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Pie Serendipity wrote:

If those are your neighbours then you DO realise we now know where you live . . .

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/me looks around and grins.

Don't you be a-worrying. There's PLENTY of room in this here basement should anyone else come a-knocking. :matte-motes-evil-invert: