Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 9 May 2011 12:08:49 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110509/10120014211/ifixit-wired-teardown-fbi-tracking-device-found-activists-car.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110509/10120014211/ifixit-wired-teardown-fbi-tracking-device-found-activists-car.shtml found a GPS tracking device on his car (because of a friend's Reddit comment). The FBI showed up and demanded the device back after the guy had posted on Reddit about it. Of course, lots of people wondered what they would do if they found such a device on their car -- with most insisting they would not turn it back over to the FBI.

Well, one woman who actually had found such a device and still had it, read that same story, and decided to give it to Wired, who then teamed up with the teardown experts at iFixit to tear down the device. Wired has a full story about the device and iFixit has the teardown details. The Wired article also covers some of the ongoing legal battles about such tracking, though as Clive Thompson points out, this idea of sticking a device on cars seems like it's going to be increasingly outdated, considering that the feds now feel comfortable asking mobile operators to simply hand over location info from phone users, sometimes without a warrant.

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