Can You Put a GPS on My Boyfriend’s Car?

Can You Put a GPS on My Boyfriend’s Car?

Updated August 20, 2012

We get asked variations of this question a lot.

Let’s start with a definition of GPS (Global Positioning System), which is an assemblage of satellites that orbit the Earth that

Artist Interpretation of GPS satellite, image courtesy of NASA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

people with ground receivers use to pinpoint geographic locations.  For most equipment, the location accuracy ranges from 10 to 100 meters; with special military-approved equipment, accuracy can be pinpointed to within 1 meter.  GPS equipment has become sufficiently low-cost so that almost anyone can own a GPS receiver (some of you may have GPS trackers in your own vehicles).

We use GPS tracking devices in our work, but we’re extremely careful that their use is legal before we attach one anywhere.  For vehicles, it’s illegal for a PI to attach a GPS device in/on a vehicle that his client doesn’t own.   No way around it unless the PI wants to court a felony.  We’ve had potential clients ask us to attach a GPS device on their boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s/spouse’s car, and we always ask: “Is your name on that car’s registration?  No?  Sorry, it’s illegal).  We never assume that a husband’s or wife’s name is on the registration for their spouse’s vehicle, btw.  We’ve had husbands and wives claim their names are definitely on their spouse’s vehicles, but we always double-check (surprising how many times both spouses’ names aren’t on a vehicle’s registration).

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Related articles

• Car thieves target GPS units to rob homes (cbc.ca)
• When is it Okay to Use GPS Trackers? (blogs.lawyers.com)
• Stolen Truck and Dog Recovered with Real Time GPS Tracking Device After Suspect’s Short Cruise on Pacific Coast Highway (prweb.com)
• ACLU Sues For FBI GPS Tracking Guidelines (techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
• ‘Spoofed’ GPS signals can be countered, researchers show (phys.org)
• Sixth Circuit rules police tracking of GPS in phone not an illegal search (jurist.org)