Is it Illegal to Remove a GPS Tracker From a Vehicle?

If you’re searching the web about removing a GPS tracker from a car, you already know that there are some sketchy offer out there. Before doing anything, it’s important to thoroughly think, rethink and re-rethink all the steps you take when a GPS tracker is in question. There’s always the chance you could end up hurting yourself or even end up incriminating yourself. So, first advice, tread lightly.

However, when it comes to the question at hand, the answer is no. Nine times out of ten, it is perfectly okay to take a GPS device off of your car. However, the legality does depend somewhat on who placed the the auto GPS tracker in the first place and their intentions for doing so. Just the argument that, “it’s my car” isn't enough to justify taking a tracker off your vehicle. 

In this article, we’re going to take you through a some real-world scenarios to help you better understand the contexts in which you’re allowed, or not allowed, to remove a GPS tracker from your vehicle.

If you know that you are currently under investigation for whatever reason, removing a GPS tracker from your car could get you in some serious trouble. The police may or may not have notified you regarding the tracker, but in both scenarios, tracking devices in Canada are only used by the authorities when they have a court-issued warrant to justify their activities. However, if you stumble upon a GPS tracker and have no reason why it’s there, your first thought should be that it’s from a hidden federal investigation on you. Sure, it may just be a creepy ex or something, but you can never be too cautious. Yes, you could claim that you didn’t know about who put the device and tossed it out the window. Getting rid of a federal tracking device won’t incriminate you, but it also won’t sit well in front of a jury. It’s better to take the tracker to the local authorities and they’ll be able to determine the make and model of the device and help you understand where it came from.

Let’s suppose you loaned money from a bank or some other institution to purchase a car, and they put a tracker on your vehicle. The chances are the use of a GPS device has been outlined in the contracts that you signed prior to accepting the money. Removing this tracker won’t incriminate you, but you will be in breach of an official contract and losing your car will be the first of many consequences you will have to bear.

If you’re underage and you find a tracker on your car, you should always confront your parents about it and ask them if they’re behind the tracker. If the answer is no, report it to the authorities immediately. However, if your parents say yes, you are allowed to remove the GPS tracker without informing them. The thing is that removing this tracker, similar to your parents installing it, is neither legal or illegal. Both parties are allowed to do it. Parents are allowed to safeguard their property but underage kids also have a right to privacy.

There are two scenarios at play here. First is that you’re issued a vehicle by your superior officers and are allowed to use it for personal reasons too. If so, it is illegal for the company to place a tracker on your vehicle. You can not only remove it, you can also file a lawsuit against your company for invasion of privacy. However, if the vehicle is only issued for work-related trips, then the company has all the right in the world to track your vehicle. There are two reasons for this, the company could either just want to keep track of where you are and what you’re doing, or they could be doing it to safeguard their property. Either way, they’re allowed to install tracking devices. Once again, removing them may not incriminate you, but regardless of whether you were pre-informed of the device or not, it could get you suspended, or even fired.

If you remove a GPS tracker from a rented car, you could get in big trouble. With rentals vehicles, you do not have the right to make modifications or alter the internal machinery. Every rental vehicle has a GPS device and if you remove the one in yours, you are indeed incriminating yourself for several reasons. First, as mentioned, you’re simply not allowed to do this to a rented vehicle. Secondly, the police will consider this as an attempt to steal the car. It’s likely that if the rental company finds out you removed the tracker, they’ll put a BOLO out for the car and arrest you on sight.

If you just bought a new or used car, you’re allowed to remove the GPS tracker from the vehicle. However, this is only an option once you’ve paid the whole amount and you have absolutely nothing owed to the dealership. If you find a tracking device, not only are you allowed to disable it, the dealership is performing an illegal activity by invading your privacy and are liable to a lawsuit.

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