GPS Tracking Law

You may be wondering if you need to follow any boring legal legislation with a GPS tracker.  The bad news is, yes there is some, but the good news is I’ve done the hard work for you and simplified it in this short article!

Commercial Tracking

GPS trackers come under the Data protection act (1998).  The data protection act does not apply to individuals or family members so this section is not so relevant.  The data protection act gives rules about how personal data can be used, stored and processed.  Personal data is anything that can be related to a living person.

If you wish to track someone you must give them information on why you are tracking them and what it is for.  It is important to comply with the data protection act if you are using GPS tracking to monitor employees.  If you wish to track your staff you will need to take an ‘impact assessment’.  The impact assessment will make you look into how it will effect your staff and makes sure that their personal privacy is not impacted on too much.

You are not obligated to tell a person you are tracking if you are genuinely doing it to try and stop or prevent a crime.

Personal Tracking

If you want to use a GPS tracker to help protect family members then you do not need to comply with data protection act regulations.  This is because the data protection act does not apply to personal decisions.  Therefore if you want to use a GPS tracker in your household you do not need to worry as much.

Using a GPS tracker to covertly monitor someone would be a breach of their privacy.  GPS trackers should not be used to help stalk people!

Can GPS tracking data be used in court?

To a degree yes.  If you had a GPS tracker in your car, and you tracked the person who stole it they do have some legal rights to privacy.  However, as the GPS tracker was there to track your car (all above board) then their ‘privacy’ has arguably not been breached.  As long as the data you provide has been legally obtained without harming others you are okay.

Now what?

I hope you’ve found this quick over view useful.  If you are looking into tracking commercially (such as at work) or are worried about personal tracking, then you should consult with a lawyer in regard to all the data protection responsibilities and paper work.

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