Earlier this month, Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old business major from Santa Clara, CA, noticed a wire poking out from his car when he took it in for an oil change. He showed his mechanic, who proceeded to remove a clunky device attached to a magnet and a battery pack.
When Afifi returned home, his friend Khaled suggested that they put pictures of the device on the Internet to find out what it was. Two days later, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up demanding their “expensive” tracking device back.
“It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian,” said Brian Alseth of the American Civil Liberties Union in an interview.
Frightening, perhaps. Legal? Definitely.
That’s because in August, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled (in USA v. Juan Pineda-Moreno) that it’s legal for federal agents to track people’s movements by secretly planting GPS devices on cars, even if they have to sneak onto private property to do so. Without a warrant.
The ruling sets precedent for nine Western states and holds that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to driveways. (The Fourth is the one that guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”)
The Ninth Circuit decided that most people don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their yards and driveways because “the public,” — e.g. delivery people and kids selling candy bars — can typically access them.
The ruling has both liberals and conservatives up in arms (figuratively speaking). But probably no one as much as Yasir Afifi, an American citizen whose now-deceased father was Egyptian.
So far, Afifi seems to be the only person to discover that he is being legally tracked by the FBI, but he can’t be the only one. So how can you tell?
The feds may be tracking you without your knowledge if…
1. You own a car in a Western state
The Ninth Circuit’s ruling may inadvertently help to curb emissions in the states under its jurisdiction — Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Only 4.5% of Americans regularly use public transportation, but maybe this will provide greater incentive to take the bus or ride a bike, especially in car-clogged Cali. It’s still illegal for law enforcement to electronically monitor your person.
2. You park on the street or in an area that’s exposed to the public
If your car is parked in a garage, especially one that’s connected to your house, they’ll need a warrant. Of course, this is bad news for people who don’t have garages. Like many 20-year-old Californians, Afifi lives in an apartment complex.
Some have suggested that the Ninth Circuit displayed a shocking class bias in favor of the very wealthy: If you can afford to surround your home with gates, hedges and electric fences, you do have a “reasonable expectation” of privacy in your yard and driveway and, according to the ruling, the Feds would not be allowed to come onto your property without a warrant.
3. You (or one of your friends) have ever posted anything on the Internet about blowing stuff up, even if it’s in jest and/or speculative
This is a tough one. Not only can Internet posts easily be taken out of context, but how can you be responsible for what your friends are posting at 2 a.m.? This seems to have been Afifi’s big mistake.
One of the FBI agents sent to retrieve the tracking device referenced an Internet post that one of his friends had made. Several months ago, his friend Khaled (the same guy who posted the pictures of the tracking device on the Internet) made a seemingly speculative comment on message board thread regarding terrorism. He ended the post by writing: “so…yea…now i’m surely bugged : /”
Oh how right you are, Khaled.
Also: The government monitors message boards, blogs and social networking sites.
4. You regularly get searched at airports
Afifi said that he knows he’s on a federal watch list in part because he is regularly taken aside at airports for secondary screening.
Thanks to improved coordination among federal agencies following the Homeland Security Act of 2002, if the TSA thinks you could be a problem, chances are the FBI knows about it too.
4 comments
bill
"ignorant and easily frightened".....i can assure you that i am neither and i would suggest that you open your eyes to reality as i would all the rest of the bleeding heart liberals. you will be the first begging for help when the shtf and it will because of you and others like you.
momdoc
Commie, you and your friends had more gust than 98% of the people in the USA! You had the courage to seek out knowledge the government doesn't want you to know!
I'm on a list somewhere I think. I get pulled out of line at airports alot... and I'm white... and female!
But I think your age blinded you to the ramifications of puting the name hamas on anything It. can be used against you in a court now, to show you support terrorism! Yeah, that'll get you on a list!
commie
I was a member of my high schools Marxism club which me and a few friends started. Most of us aren't communist (I'm a social democrat) we just wanted to learn about communism. Recently they had a joke bake sale to support hamas. They actually didn't even sell but rather gave food away. I just know that after me internet activity and real life interactions I've got to be on several lists. A couple months ago when I traveled to Alaska they took me aside for a random search...
John Smith
I doubt that Mr Afifi's offense was being half-Egyptian, as the ACLU guy suggests. The feds don't know the ancestry of random Americans, if only because compiling such a database would take some serious competence. If Mr Afifi's name was John Smith and he was half-Egyptian, nothing would have been attached to his car.
No, Mr Afifi's primary offense is his name. To the ignorant and easily frightened, his name is reason enough to literally open a federal investigation.