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See other How To Articles Title: FBI Vehicle-Tracking Device: The Teardown
Source:
Wired
URL Source: [None]
Published: May 9, 2011
Author: Kim Zetter
Post Date: 2011-05-09 23:52:39 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 3008
Comments: 1
The FBI's use of GPS vehicle tracking devices is becoming a contentious privacy issue in the courts, with the Obama administration seeking Supreme Court approval for its use of the devices without a warrant, and a federal civil rights lawsuit targeting the Justice Department for tracking the movements of an Arab-American student. In the midst of this legal controversy, Threat Level decided to take a look at the inside of one of the devices — which are generally custom-made for law enforcement. Working with the teardown artists at iFixit, we examined a device an environmental activist discovered on her vehicle in 2005, which she recently provided to us. What follows is iFixit's analysis of the first-ever dissection of an FBI vehicle tracker. Above: Step 1 We finally have one of these on the teardown table! Being in its presence, I can almost feel my civil liberties being flushed down the toilet. Before we whip out the blowtorches and jackhammers, here's a look at the entire tracking system. Clockwise from the top, the system is composed of: * Battery pack * GPS antenna * Transmitter-receiver unit * Magnetic mounting bracket The components of the system are all attached to the tracked vehicle with extremely powerful magnets. Some were so stubbornly attached that they ripped out of the mounting brackets to forever remain stuck on the undercarriage of the host vehicle.
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