Is it right to use GPS tracking devices in people’s cars to tell where the drivers have been going all day? The idea sounds a bit seedy, but there are legitimate situations where it’s not only understandable but necessary. From parents keeping track of wayward teens to employers making sure their workers aren’t wasting gas, here are three situations where people are well within their rights to track another driver’s route on the road:
Employers Using GPS Tracking Devices in Company Vehicles
For people who run businesses with company vehicles – particularly fleets that are out during the day completing service calls – a tracking unit helps ensure honesty. It’s tempting for an employee to be given free reign with a company vehicle. It protects your assets to make sure your auto is driven solely for business purposes. A GPS tracking device can prove or disprove that.
Employers can also make sure their workers are making the most of their time. If they’re on service calls in one town and their GPS tracker shows them driving elsewhere, business owners have recourse for firing them. This evidence can be used to avoid paying unemployment. It can also be used to scare employees straight.
Using Tracking Devices with Children
GPS location trackers can be a parents’ best friend. This is especially true for the units that keep track of location in real-time. Through something as simple as an Internet connection, parents can find their children instantly if no one knows where they are.
For children who wander, who have special needs or are very young, a tracking unit can truly mean the difference between a temporary scare and disaster. Parents whose children are starting to get into trouble can use devices to ensure their parents know their kids are safe and not in a bad area getting themselves into trouble. Unfortunately, in these cases the devices may have to be hidden particularly well.
Keeping Track of an Unfaithful Spouse
When a husband or wife begins an affair, they open their families up to untold dangers. They not only risk breaking the hearts of their committed partners but of bringing home disease, introducing a violent or malicious person into their lives and destroying their partners and children financially. Husbands and wives have every right to know why their marriages are ending. They have every right to protect themselves physically and financially.
Installing a GPS tracking device is easy from a technical standpoint. All it takes is locating a decent hiding place, attaching the unit and turning it on. When ready, the tracker can be removed and hooked up to a computer where location information can be downloaded. Alternately, there are units that give real-time location information.
The hardest point is often accepting that privacy in the situation has become less important than protection. Employers want their vehicles used for intended purposes. They don’t want to waste money on employees shirking their duties. Parents don’t want to have to wonder where their children have run off to without leaving a note. Husbands and wives want the proof they need to protect their kids and assets in a messy divorce. GPS tracking devices have legitimate uses. What’s yours?
