by guest » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:44 pm
Disclaimer: IANAL (I am not a lawyer) or an electronics expert.
Most countermeasures would involve jamming, either on the GPS signals' frequencies or the cell phone frequencies. Jamming on public-use frequencies like this is generally illegal, but check with the FCC and local authorities: maybe low-power emissions could legally be used if they cover a vehicle but don't interfere with others' use. The downside is that you'd be jamming your own cell and GPS usage in the car.
A "bug sweeper" from your local secret-agent-supply store would probably be able to find a cell phone attached to the car, if it's designed to detect the right frequencies (and modern ones should be). Sounds like a market opportunity if such a thing doesn't exist already.
As always, a person would need to do the cost/benefit analysis: the costs are the price of the jamming or sweeping device, the hassle factor of using it, and the penalty if convicted times the probability of getting caught at all, and other factors. The benefit is the perceived value of the protection, which is based on its own set of intangibles: the likelihood that somebody would track you and the value of not being attacked or robbed or whatever. This is the same cost/benefit analysis you would do when deciding to get a Kevlar vest, a bulletproof car, or a bodyguard.
Of course, planting a tracking device on somebody else's vehicle without permission is trespassing, invasion of privacy, and possibly stalking. It's also probably conspiracy if there's more than one person involved.
Disclaimer: IANAL (I am not a lawyer) or an electronics expert.
Most countermeasures would involve jamming, either on the GPS signals' frequencies or the cell phone frequencies. Jamming on public-use frequencies like this is generally illegal, but check with the FCC and local authorities: maybe low-power emissions could legally be used if they cover a vehicle but don't interfere with others' use. The downside is that you'd be jamming your own cell and GPS usage in the car.
A "bug sweeper" from your local secret-agent-supply store would probably be able to find a cell phone attached to the car, if it's designed to detect the right frequencies (and modern ones should be). Sounds like a market opportunity if such a thing doesn't exist already.
As always, a person would need to do the cost/benefit analysis: the costs are the price of the jamming or sweeping device, the hassle factor of using it, and the penalty if convicted times the probability of getting caught at all, and other factors. The benefit is the perceived value of the protection, which is based on its own set of intangibles: the likelihood that somebody would track you and the value of not being attacked or robbed or whatever. This is the same cost/benefit analysis you would do when deciding to get a Kevlar vest, a bulletproof car, or a bodyguard.
Of course, planting a tracking device on somebody else's vehicle without permission is trespassing, invasion of privacy, and possibly stalking. It's also probably conspiracy if there's more than one person involved.