If only all these tracking functions were easy to deactivate (or better, opt-in) then there would not be a need for jammers
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.
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.
So they should also make it legal to rip that shit out or force the automakers to give customers that option.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I would use one for privacy but there would be black vans following me around and probably land a felony. It is really easy to track these things. All they have to do is look for big blob of gps unavailable bubble moving around and they can also triangulate the signal with fairly cheap tools. Jamming is just spamming noise after all.
Yes and there was an article few months ago telling that burglars now use wifi jammers to turn off wifi security cameras before breaking and entering. Those jammers are pretty much illegal as well but criminal do illegal stuff anyways…
That being said, how would blocking only the GPS help criminals in their criminal activities? I lack imagination I guess.
