Spying on your spouse

Spying on Snookums With GPS

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,56537,00.html

In a rambling building that overlooks a freeway in San Diego, a bank of computers monitors the travels of trucks carrying hazardous materials, making sure they don't go anywhere near such landmarks as the White House and the capitol building of Arkansas.

Using GPS software, the computers also track cars for seven police agencies. Some of the vehicles are waiting to be stolen, while others are driven by unsuspecting suspects who are under surveillance.

And then there are the private citizens, some 5,000 of them, whose cars are tracked night and day. Finding their latitude and longitude is as easy as logging on to the Internet, typing in a password and looking at a computerized map. It's impossible, however, to find out how many of the customers track their spouses or partners without telling them.

"It does happen," admits John Phillips, president and CEO of Satellite Security Systems, a location-tracking company. "We don't promote it. We hope it's used more for safety for wives and husbands than spying on them."

But the company doesn't ask questions. And its tracking systems are so inexpensive and easily hidden that they may even tempt a suspicious spouse who pinches pennies. It costs just $600 to $700 to outfit a car or truck with a master control device, which is about the size of a compact disc case and an inch thick. It's connected by a wire to a matchbook-size GPS sensor.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it's legal for cops to use technology to track a suspect on the road, it's not so clear whether you can monitor your spouse's movements. "As is so often the case, law develops behind new technology," said Mark Grossman, a Miami attorney who specializes in technology law.

Courts may be sympathetic to snooping citizens because someone's driving patterns aren't a secret, Grossman said. "Common sense tells you that if I want to follow you in your car, there's no law against that. If I want to videotape where you're driving, that's fine, although it could cross the line into stalking."
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Is this type of behavior becoming acceptable?

I don't support spying especially when nobody knows whats going on. Im usually the type of guy that yells phrases such as remember 1984 and down with the man.

I should hope not. My friend's boyfriend regularly accesses her email. I'm always after my friend to change her password but she says she doesn't mind. I can't send her any email without him seeing it. I absolutely vehemently disagree with this practice. No matter how close you are to someone, it doesn't give you the right to mess with their privacy.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

one thing to remember is that your constantly being spied upon/watched all the time...maybe not intentionally but its happening........................................
did u know that theres that many cctv cameras in britian that if u drove from one end of the country to the other you would be on someones cctv camera practically all the way..so someone theoretically could watch the whole of your journey..(if they wanted the pain staking task of collecting all of the video tapes and sorting them out).......so just remember this in everything you do SOMEONE IS ALWAYS WATCHING




waterboy

As a car stereo installer, I have personally searched for and removed 14 GPS tracking systems. I have also installed one. In the latter case, the parent had us install the unit so he could monitor his sons driving habits. In the ones I have searched for, they were almost always installed by the husband/boyfriend to monitor the wife/girlfriend. Only in one case have I ever found the roles reversed. The saddest part of all of this is when I confirmed the customers suspicions, they were not as surprised as dissapointed. It is sad that we, as humans, are so untrustworthy that we feel the need to spy on one of the most special (hopefully) relationships in our lives.

By the way, installing one of these units on a car that doesn't belong to you is illegal!

They have a very classy website at least. Seems their product is about the same as the OnStar, except they use GPS to fix their positions. they might not advocate spying on a spouse, but they do suggest keeping track of junior on the weekend, so it would not be a quantum leap for some suspicious spouse to take it one level higher. Havent' been to the LoJack (sp?) site, but it sounds like a beefed-up version of that product. When i was shopping for wife a new car a couple months ago we tried out some of the premium models and accidentally activated the OnStar, trying to adjust the rear-view mirror on one model. Detroit answered up in about ten seconds flat and they knew exactly where we were. Not sure they can do that with a cellphone connection, as cellphone signal repeaters could not pinpoint your position on the highway, so maybe they (OnStar) was using satellite uplinks for their commo, same as this outfit. Good info.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by |The|Specialist
I don't support spying especially when nobody knows whats going on.

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I got a giggle at that one, isn't that what spying is all about in the first place :), sorry the visions of the CIA , ASIO and the like running around in labelled flouro vests just doesn't cut the picture.

Seriously tho, I can see the benefits of these devices for the tracking of fleet vehicles, tracking vehicles that have been stolen as pointed out .... but,

... if one has the need to install one of these devices to check on the movements of a spouse, then the trust has gone out of the relationship and this spells the end as far as I am concerned. These people would be better off spending the money on divorce proceeding, because that where its going to end up.

I have been married a long time and we share a common machine for email that is filtered to seperate equally accessible folders - but neither checks on each others email and/or snail-mail - nor do we question each other about our movements - as someone once sang "Its a matter of trust" and if I did not trust my wife I couldn't see the point of getting married and/or staying married.

I think if it is used to prevent crime I am all for it but I think we still have a right to privacy.Personally I think if trust went out the window between partners the rest speaks for itself.For a relationship in marriage to get to a point where both parties can trust one another without a doubt, is a milestone in todays society.I see a lot of people who have small things going wrong in their marriages but then instead of trying to work it out they end up in divorce before you know it.Spying under these kind of circumstances I think will worsen the whole situation.(no offence to anyone.)

regards
vanman:)

i totaly agree with you vanamn, i know the user name and password for my wifes email, but i never get loged to it.
it's a matter of trust i guess and respect for your self and your wife.

I know my girlfriends passwords, pin (bank) code etc..
she makes me check her mail evry now and then and makes me withdraw money etc.
I think relationships should be based on trust..

So in answer to Tedob1's question: Is this type of behavior becoming acceptable?
I'd say NO

i support spying as long as im not being spyed on -_-

-s

The only person who mistrusts his/her mate is the person who can't be trusted. Relationships business and personal are based on trust. Those who don't trust shouldn't be trusted.

I'm all for trust - some of my closest relationships are bound by shared secrets that will go to the grave with us, but (and I'm donning flame proof underwear before continuing), ladies and gentlemen please, do you really seriously believe that anyone who was playing around would not do so away from the shared email account, that they would not apply for that second credit card with a seperate bill, that they would take minicabs to dates? Tracking cars is a pretty flimsy solution to a failing marriage IMHO, and you'd have to be a fairly dumb adulterer to make it *that* easy to get caught.

Like old man said, this could be useful for locating where your kid is on a Friday night. But to spy on your spouse like that is just...wrong. If you distrust your spouse so much that you have to track his or her car 24/7, then maybe you shouldn't be in a relationship, you should be sent to a therapist. Of course there are useful things you could do with this, like tracking a stalker, cheating spouse, known felon's, and, probably the most useful of all, your kid.

Used the right way, this could be very useful

As far as spying on a spouse-I'd have to agree that a relationship should be based on trust. If I can't trust you, or vice versa, we are NOT friends. I have installed keyloggers on friends machines(with their permission) to make them aware of unsafe habits-like trading stocks online from the library.
Even monitoring a minor isn't the way to find out if they are trustworthy-a friend asked me to set up spyware on his 15 year old daughters computer "to find out if she could be trusted"----I hope others see the irony---it wasn't an issue of safety---of course work is different.....