Is it legal to use a GPS tracking device on a person without their knowledge?

[Mycroft]

I've been sent copies of news reports about the Apple Location Services logging, and haven't been able to pin down what, exactly, is unethical about it.

I'm not saying it's ethical or not - because I'm not sure what the claim is, exactly.

It sounds like there's a logfile for Location Services. That makes perfect sense, because other apps can be authorized by the user to use the current location to perform their functions. eg: Google Maps, Nike+, Find My iPhone. It's not any sort of secret that I can tell - it's at least documented in the SDK complete with API calls.

In terms of secrecy to the user: Location Services is an iOS functionality that is disabled by default and users need to turn it on. I'm trying to imagine a user saying that Nike+ was approved to use Location Services to find his location, but that he's shocked to discover this information was in a file on the device.

This is true of all the device platforms of which I'm aware (Android, iOS, Blackberry) - they have a version of Location Services that users can authorize to be accessed by installed apps or even online services (like all those "find my phone" services).

So, I'm still trying to make sense of the repeated accusations that Apple is engaged in 'shady and invasive' practices.

I'm not defending Apple, but I don't understand what's being pointed to here.

Lots of apps use my location for my convenience, but I can't think of any that require a kept record of my locations. That a record is kept without my knowledge and prior consent is to me a violation of my privacy.

 

[Dorian Gray]

I don't see any problem legally with doing it for cheating detection, because your only legal options after obtaining the information are leave her, confront her (in a crime-free way), get even (in a crime-free way) or suck it up and deal with it. It's when a crime is suspected and/or law enforcement is involved that it becomes a legal issue in my opinion.

Let's say you suspect your wife of cheating on you, so you drop a GPS tracker in her purse. After tracking her, you get some addresses and go there to see what's up. If you find she's cheating, you can act as I've indicated above. If it was a private investigator who finds she's been cheating, you can act as I've indicated above. However, if you or the PI discover that she's not cheating on you, but rather going to her huge hydroponic pot farm with a meth lab in the back, the GPS information you have is absolutely useless in court.

 

[gumboot]

In New Zealand I am not 100% on the law but I think it's illegal to plant a tracking device on someone without their permission, however you could put a tracking device on property you owned or jointly owned with another.

The police can only use tracking devices with a warrant. The exception is if a police officer does not have time to acquire a warrant, but reasonably believes that if a warrant was requested it would be granted.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/

 

[blutoski]

Lots of apps use my location for my convenience, but I can't think of any that require a kept record of my locations. That a record is kept without my knowledge and prior consent is to me a violation of my privacy.

I'm not sure I can agree with that. Cacheing previously retrieved data is a common way to mitigate transmission delays, whether it's keystrokes in your computer's buffer, packets in your modem cache, or other such. I'm sure if you check the EULAs for these devices, they don't even talk about user consent.

Which brings me around to answering my own question. I had a look at the file on my desktop backup (which is encrypted, so I had to de-encrypt it first), and it does appear my hesitation to join the pitchfork crowd was justified. It's a cache of local cellphone and wifi coordinates, rather than a log of coordinates for the user. The purpose is so that this information doesn't have to be downloaded every time the user needs location services to estimate coordinates based on cellphone tower proximity.

Granted, this is a list of recently engaged cellular nodes, but other smartphones use this exact same strategy, so a) it's not explicitly an Apple problem, and b) certainly not what I'd call 'shady and invasive'.

Sorry if this is off-topic. I'm just closing the circle for my own sake, and in case anybody else was interested.