The device consists of four main components: a battery pack, GPS antenna, transmission/reception module and magnets to mount it to the car’s frame. The battery pack is a long metal tube (which could easily be mistaken for a pipe bomb) that holds four lithium-thionyl chloride (Li-SOCI2) D cell batteries. The battery pack is designed for applications that draw low power for extended periods of time (10-20 years!).

While certainly cutting edge in 2005, (the now-ubiquitous GPS on mobile phones was then unheard of), six years later the tech seems almost ancient. It tells us less about what the FBI is currently capable of and more about their warrantless surveillance tactics.

A former federal agent told Wired.com that devices currently in use by the FBI most likely don’t require separate batteries, and can be hard-wired directly to the car battery and hidden under the hood.

This public undressing of FBI technology comes in the wake of last year’s discovery of an FBI tracking unit by a California student named Yasir Afifi. Afifi recently made headlines yet again when the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit against the FBI on his behalf, claiming they violated the American-born U.S. citizen’s rights when they tracked him without a warrant.

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Now you can, with the help of GPS Positioner USB key, courtesy of French spy gadget e-tailer Camera Espion. This extremely simple and effective spying gadget has a GPS chip built in a case that looks just like an ordinary USB key. With some memory and power source, so it can record the position from GPS satellites continuously or at a preset intervals.

Then you place this USB key anywhere in the car you want to follow or in a bag of the person you are watching and you are set. After retrieving the key, you download recorded info to your PC and look up on Google Maps or MapQuest where it has traveled that day.

The GPS USB key itself has the dimensions of 10 cm x 3cm x 2cm, weights less then 50g, can last 16 hours in standard mode and up to 6 days in economic mode of operation with 2 small 1.5V or one AAA battery. It is good for 4000 coordinate records.

As I see it, the only problem with the device is it’s price, which today stands at 391 Euro

Found via Clubic

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