Find Any Unusual Black Boxes Under Your Car Lately?

A couple of articles posted on Slashdot recently (here and here) have me reaching for my tin-foil hat.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in their infinite wisdom, ruled that it’s legal for law enforcement to put GPS tracking units on vehicles without a warrant, even if your car is parked in your private driveway. If the case described by Slashdot is representative of the probable cause the FBI needs to slap a GPS device on your car, don’t be surprised to find one under your hood (and I want to know who makes their GPS devices so I can buy some stock).

To summarize, a half-Egyptian marketing student at Mission College found an unusual black box under his car and posted pictures of it on the Internet. The FBI soon showed up to retrieve their device, telling the student not to worry, he’s boring.

What did said student do to garner such attention? As it turns out, nothing.

A friend of the student had posted a comment on Reddit (note: small degree of profanity, buckets full of hilarity) related to security. The comment was made in reference to a post on the idiocy of some airport security practices. If you can find anything that sounds threatening in the comment, you have better eyes than I do.

If some friend of yours makes a non-threatening comment on the web that has the word “bomb” in it, the FBI could put a GPS tracker on your car? Good grief.

*Note to FBI: If I find anything weird under my hood, it’s going on Ebay.