GPS, Sat Nav, or Satellite Navigation is one of the latest technologies that has now become an affordable aid to U.S. Motorists. Prices have declined considerably, the GPS receivers have become much smaller, and the unit have become more accurate. GPS receivers are so small they currently reside is almost all new cellular devices. Now people have found many new uses for GPS cellular enabled devices.
Many are using the current devices to keep track of their employees and for fleet management. Others use covert GPS applications to locate their children. A whole slew of devices have been produced to send GPS coordinates to the authorities in situations of distress or abduction. Many people also use the GPS on their cellular phones and device to communicate their locations to social networking sites like twitter.com and mologogo.com. People even put GPS tracking devices on their dogs.
Real-time GPS has also helped law enforcement. Fairfax County Police in Virginia used GPS to capture a suspected sexual predator in the attempt of an assault. GPS records have also been introduced into evidence in a murder trial. The built in GPS navigation system of the suspect's seized automobile contained the GPS coordinates of where the victim's body was found.
Private Investigators and Detectives also use GPS to assist in surveillance during many cases. The laws of every different jurisdiction must be considered whenever a GPS tracking device is used. The use of GPS devices in private investigations usually allows the client to obtain the desired evidence more quickly and at a greatly reduced expense. The use of these devices is viewed by many simply as an extension of surveillance. What difference does it make if you have a team of mobile surveillance operatives following you 24 hours a day or if you have a magnetic mounted GPS tracking device on your car? The outcome will be the same, but most folks can afford the latter.
You can even use real-time GPS tracking with prepaid phones. Here is a tutorial on how to set up real time GPS tracking on a Boost mobile phone. If you already have phones or need a long term solution many of the major cellular providers offer family tracking plans. Usually when initiated these services send a text message to all the phones on the account notifying the cellular user that perhaps they are being located by GPS. Once activated the user is usually unaware they are being located. Here is a page for a family locator. Here is another, family locator.