Interesting feature to GPS

[Titanium Man]

So, my wife and I got in the car today and drove about 300 miles, in a roundabout way up to Cabela's and back, and we noticed something in our new GPS, that isn't in our old GPS. Note-we only buy Garmins because they are the most user friendly, and have the best features. Anyway, as we were almost home, we noticed that our originial route up, was conveniently outlined on the screen, even highlighting any stops we made. Wow, so this tells me if someone is planning on doing something illegal, don't have your GPS monitoring your route, as it might be able to be used against you if uncovered as evidence.

Anybody else know what big brother is really watching with these things, or the capabilities of them???

 

[bluewraith]

I wouldn't sweat being spied on with it. A GPS nav device is a one way street, so to say. It picks up the signals from the GPS satellites and does its own route calculations.

Even a GPS tracker set up by the FBI has to have its own cellular link in order to transmit the location back. Interesting article here: FBI loses track of 3,000 GPS tracking devices | Tecca
The FBI had unwarranted GPS tracking devices on some (3000) cars and was court ordered to deactivate them. Unfortunately, the deactivated them before retrieving them and now they have lost most of the 3000 GPS units.


Now if you are caught after the crime, then they can trace the history inside the GPS nav unit much like you noticed. Easy solution: Don't commit a crime. That, or leave the GPS at home.

 

[williamsburg]

I noticed this in the Garmin in my wife's car as well. When we turned it on one day the previous route was still on it.
I was told that when you do not opt out of the 'share data' option that it will transmit somehow to garmin and they track paths and times traveled. I do not know if this is true, but I did here Verizon was using cell tower pings to 'follow' customers for a test of checking the flow of traffic a while back.

Not only GPS systems and cell phone towers themselves. But the newer vehicles have 'Black Boxes' in them that records data but only for brief moments they say.

 

[Titanium Man]

FBI loses track of 3,000 GPS tracking devices | Tecca
The FBI had unwarranted GPS tracking devices on some (3000) cars and was court ordered to deactivate them. Unfortunately, the deactivated them before retrieving them and now they have lost most of the 3000 GPS units.

Hmmmm.................wish I could make six figures a year, and be totally incompetent.

 

[churchmouse]

Hmmmm.................wish I could make six figures a year, and be totally incompetent.

Well, you can. Take the tests, hope you are in the ethnicity group's they are filling and join big brother. Report back to us on "Whats up"........

 

[Suprtek]

With all the technology that most people have on there person or in their vehicles, it is nearly impossible to live a normal life with someone having the ability to track them. Its just the world we live in now.

 

[jetmechG550]

I believe it's called breadcrumbs and it's something you usually have to turn on but may not be on by default. Been around for a while

 

[JetGirl]

I use the oldschool GPS. It fits nicely under the seat, but it's a beeyotch to fold back up...

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

If you don't opt out, it uploads your paths if you connect to the intertubes for map updates or whatever, and I wouldn't necessarily count on opting out, but that's just me. Just because a path disappears from the display doesn't mean it's not still in there, they're just getting it out of your way so your display isn't all cluttered up. I'm not aware of any standalone GPS that has any kind of backchannel; it's just a receiver.

 

[JettaKnight]

I wouldn't sweat being spied on with it. A GPS nav device is a one way street, so to say. It picks up the signals from the GPS satellites and does its own route calculations.

^^^^^THIS^^^^^

I've worked with GPS receivers. The actual signal from GPS satellites is amazingly weak. Any telematic devices that do tracking require a cellular link. Although with OnStar, most cars have cellular phones built-in...