An article from Business Insider discusses law enforcement officers’ ability to obtain GPS data from a car or GPS manufacturer without a warrant. The officer may ask for the data and the car or GPS manufacturer may give them the information without the driver’s knowledge or consent.
William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, explained that law enforcement officers may acquire this information under the “third party doctrine.” Under this doctrine, the Fourth Amendment’s limit on warrantless searches and seizures does not prevent the government from accessing, without a warrant, information a person voluntarily provides to a third party.
According to a recent article in Atlantic Monthly, the third party doctrine originated from two U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In these cases, the Court stated that “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties” and the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the third party from turning over that information to government authorities (U.S. v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976); Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 375 (1979)).
According to a recent federal Government Accounting Office report, Ford, Chrysler, GM, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan track and store data they gather from people driving cars they manufactured. While none of the companies currently sell the data, customers usually aren’t aware of the data gathering and don’t have the ability to opt out of giving companies the data.
