You know what feels wrong? You can easily buy GPS tracking devices on Amazon, but it is illegal to use a GPS jammer in USA, Canada and many other countries.
So companies spying you is fine, but blocking a GPS signal to prevent them from spying can get you a $16,000 fine.
Edit: my thought experiment is not about truck drivers being monitored but more about those fancy new EVs that sell your GPS based data to data brokers… You usually can’t turn off the GPS in those EVs.
The reason this needs to be illegal is because jamming the signal is not specific to you. You block your signal but you probably will also be blocking it for anyone else in the vicinity. Plus the way these things work they can create interference for other types of signals as well. It isn’t the blocking itself that’s illegal, but the interference that you’re causing.
I totally understand this and I agree when it comes to jammers this powerful.
My comment was about the low power models which only works for few feet, just enough for to cover your own car. Those are still illegal.
My comment was about the low power models which only works for few feet
There’s no such thing.
GPS signals are incredibly weak and super vulnerable to interference.
We all deserve the right not to be tracked.
The solution to this isn’t in GPS jamming the solution to this is in data collection laws. They should absolutely refuse to sell cars that don’t have the option to turn off cellular links and GPS tracking.
Let me preface this by saying I completely agree that there’s a conflict here, but it’s pretty much required in this day and age.
Let’s look at the current situation: Someone buys a tracker for under $100, sticks it to your car, and they can see you wherever you go. It’s scary, because they can know where you are at all times, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to figure out who did it.
Now an alternative where GPS trackers are illegal: Someone buys the generic parts for a GPS tracker, sticks it to your car, and they can see you wherever you go. But also legitimate uses for GPS trackers aren’t possible any longer. Say goodbye to things like tiles and air tags, hell maybe even GPS in your phone since you can get an android device with GPS for less than $100 and load it with software to do the tracking. At best you’ve prevented easy tracking with a huge detriment to the average user, at worst you’ve outlawed GPS tech entirely.
The final alternative is allowing jamming. I don’t have a nice story for this one, because the implications are far reaching. Is your jammer too strong? You’re interrupting other people’s GPS in a huge area, including things like navigation, child/pet/item tracking, time sensitive hardware could be using GPS as well, or things checking elevation. Not to mention, jammers can be used for nefarious purposes as well. Kidnapping a child and jamming a tracker on them, stealing a phone/wallet/keys and blocking its ability to report where it is.
There’s no perfect situation here, but the current state is the least harmful to the general population.
Active jamming is illegal but passive is not. You can block yourself but not others. FYI.
It’s not just EVs - most new cars have these tracking devices where they sell your data to your insurance company to be used against you.
Just wait until your smart toilet can tell the insurance companies what chemical substances you’ve consumed so that the can raise your rates, deny your claims, or sell the info to your boss so the company can fire you with cause.
We already live in hell and there’s no upper limit on the thermostat.
I’m no GPSjamologist, but if a jammer was running in your car, wouldn’t the signal reach other nearby cars while in traffic or does it do it all within the confines of your automobile?
That is exactly why this is illegal. These things can have a range of up to hundreds of meters and thus you’re affecting other people aswell and not just yourself.
From the low power models I’ve seen (which are still very much illegal, same as the most powerful ones) only work between 5 to 10 feet at the very most.
It’s like when the companies place trackers in cars, we have to assume they have the best intentions in mind (it is definitely for the customers security right?!)
But if we, the customers, block them from tracking us by jamming the GPS signal, they assume we have the worst intentions in mind (surely we are dirty criminals right?!)
This is why I said it “feels” wrong.
So professional drivers, watched by their employer, are using those to escape the control.
Even if they allow them to disable the GPS, it would be a reason for firing smb. Or to cut their wage since, drivers with GPS on will get a bonus if they are faster. Or sth shit like that.
It’s illegal to spy on your workers through a camera in most EU countries. Why should GPS tracking be legal?
A camera and GPS are two very different technologies with distinct capabilities that do not overlap.
This is a safety thing. There are laws about how long you can drive without breaks because tired truckers kill people in accidents. They can’t force a driver to actually rest when stopped, but if there’s no law, then you know they’ll never rest. I would agree if this was simply active monitoring of location on a company sedan, but it’s different when the job is specifically driving for long periods
I agree. But the post I replied to literally describes a way for the employer to spy.
Rather than the employer spying, how about we keep the timer local on the vehicle. You don’t even need GPS for that either. Vehicle on, timer starts. Beeping after set amount of time. Beeping gets louder for every 10/15 minutes ignored. Insert an alucap condensator and resistor to not reset the timer after a certain amount of time.
But I have no experience with truckers or their vehicles. So I might as well just be talking out of my ass.
Can you elaborate? Is it illegal to have security cameras in a business if that means that an employee may be on it?
It’s illegal, at least in my country, to use your camera to keep an eye on your employees. You can only view it in case of illegal activities, for example something being stolen, etc. You also cannot save the footage for more than a certain amount of time, unless it needs to be used for an investigation of said illegal activities. I think it was 2 weeks, but I’m not sure.
Using the camera to check up if your employees are working is illegal.
I have never seen smb short for somebody, and spent far too long reading that as “shake my butt” in the same connotation as smh
Vehicle telematics is the next frontier of the cyberpunk privacy dystopia. I hope more people start using these things.
So they should also make it legal to rip that shit out or force the automakers to give customers that option.
The article is talking about lorry drivers making trips for work though. I am not sure I understand the need for the drivers to conceal their location while they work?
But otherwise I agree.
When you have a fleet of 500 vehicles all over the place at various stages work. Calling each one isn’t really practical.
Managing fleets of vehicles is greatly helped by knowing where the vehicles are.
Hm yeah in a working context its different, but still, why would they need to be tracked, other then MAYBE logistics (which lorry drivers would be), so yeah, gets muddy
Potentially to skirt driving time limits?
Many lorry drivers are paid by the trip. If they get stuck in traffic, they are losing money. They are also required to take regular breaks, to avoid fatigue. If they jammed the GPS, then the company can’t prove they didn’t take their break, and worked through, to make up time.
It also allows for disallowed detours. “Sorry boss, I was stuck in traffic for over an hour”. In fact they went for a pub lunch, on the clock.
This article centers on those driving work vehicles that their employer has installed trackers on. I know recently auto makers have been found snooping, which I don’t even have words for, but this isn’t that.
If only all these tracking functions were easy to deactivate (or better, opt-in) then there would not be a need for jammers
I would say depends. For company owned cars thats justified as it should purely meant for business trip only. For duel use vehicle, that there should absolutely have switch to turn it on or off.
They should 100% be opt in. If I want to use GPS I’ll use my phone. I don’t know a single person that uses the one built into the car.
But obviously they want all that juicy data. It’s not enough that they charge insane rates on the vehicles themselves, they must also add microtransactions and track when we have sex, and with who too.
