10 Common GPS Tracking Myths Busted

Key Takeaways

5 things the myths about GPS trackers usually get wrong

• 01

  Encryption varies by brand. Ask the vendor rather than assuming.

• 02

  A well-made tracker draws milliamps and sleeps when the car is parked.

• 03

  Satellites work everywhere. Sending the position needs a network.

• 04

  Phones get switched off and left behind. A fitted tracker cannot.

• 05

  Fitting one to a car you do not own is a crime in most states.

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Most of what people believe about GPS trackers comes from equipment that stopped being sold a decade ago.

I'm Ryan Horban, and I've spent the last 15 years working with GPS vehicle trackers, fleet tracking devices, and commercial GPS tracking systems across real-world fleets. The same ten objections come up every year.

So here they are, with what is actually true underneath each one. Several turn out to be half right. I have said so where that is the case.

81%

Of US adults say they are very or somewhat concerned about how companies use the data collected about them. That distrust is where most of these myths start.

Pew Research Center, 2023, How Americans View Data Privacy

Myth 1. GPS Tracking Always Invades Privacy

This is the myth worth taking seriously rather than dismissing. Fitted to your own van, it is asset management. The identical device on somebody else's car is a crime in most of the country.

Nothing about the hardware distinguishes those two cases. The law does, and so does whether the driver knows.

Myth 2. Anyone Can Legally Track Anyone

Twenty-three states criminalize fitting a tracker to a vehicle you neither own nor lease. Sixteen more reach the same conduct through stalking law, and a dozen have nothing squarely on point.

No statute is not the same as permission. Where a tracking law is missing, prosecutors use stalking, harassment or trespass instead.

For employers the rule is narrower than most drafts suggest. Company-owned vehicles may be tracked, and drivers should be told in writing. New Jersey goes further, covering an employee's own car.

Myth 3. A Tracker Will Flatten Your Battery

A plug-in or hardwired unit takes its power from the vehicle while the engine runs. Parked, a decent device drops into a low-power state. Draw falls well below what the car's own electronics use.

Magnetic battery units never touch the car's electrical system at all, which sidesteps the question entirely.

If a car does go flat, check the alternator and the existing parasitic loads first. Trackers are rarely the culprit and usually the easiest thing to blame.

Myth 4. GPS Is Only Worth It for Fleets

The maths on a single vehicle is simpler than on a fleet, not harder. One recovered trailer covers years of subscription.

A two-van contractor gets routing and geofence alerts from the same platform a hundred-van operator uses. Nothing about the software scales down badly.

Myth 5. Tracking Costs Too Much to Bother

Consumer plans generally sit between ten and forty dollars a month depending on update rate. That is a real cost, not a rounding error.

Whether it pays back depends on what the vehicle carries and how far it travels. A commuter car saves nothing on fuel. A van doing three hundred miles a week might.

Run it on your own numbers before you buy. Fuel spend, theft exposure and what one lost day of work actually costs are the three inputs that matter.

Myth 6. Installing One Needs a Technician

1. Plug-in OBD2. Into the diagnostic port under the dash. Reporting within seconds, no tools.
2. Magnetic. Onto any flat steel surface. Under five minutes, moves between assets freely.
3. Hardwired. The only one needing a professional, at roughly 30 to 45 minutes per vehicle.

Whichever you pick, set two or three alerts on day one. Movement, geofence and low battery cover most of what you will actually want to know.

Myth 7. GPS Stops Working Off the Grid

This one gets muddled constantly, and the distinction is worth holding onto. Satellites tell the unit where it is. A cellular network is how the unit tells you.

Out of coverage, most units keep logging to internal memory and upload the backlog when a signal returns. You lose the live view, not the history.

Genuinely remote work is the case for a satellite or hybrid unit, at a meaningfully higher cost. For anything suburban, cellular is the right answer.

Myth 8. A Phone Does the Same Job

The failure case makes it obvious. A stolen van does not have the owner's phone in it. The fitted tracker stays with the asset.

Phones also throttle background location, lose permissions after updates, run flat, and can be switched off in a second.

For casual family location sharing, a phone is fine and free. For anything you would file an insurance claim over, it is not the tool.

Myth 9. Tracking Means You Do Not Trust People

One that arrives unannounced does damage trust, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.

One explained in advance lands very differently. Put in writing what is recorded, who sees it, and when monitoring runs. Most drivers care more about after-hours tracking than about the device itself.

Turn it off at the end of the shift and most of the objection disappears with it.

Myth 10. Trackers Are Trivially Hackable

Researchers have found real flaws in real tracking platforms, including default passwords and open interfaces. Treating that as ancient history would be dishonest.

What separates a solid vendor from a risky one is answerable before you buy. Ask five things.

• Is data encrypted in transit, and is it encrypted at rest
• Does the account support two-factor login
• Is there a published firmware update history
• Does the privacy policy say what is collected and for how long
• Can you delete your own location history

“

Half these myths are outdated and half are worth listening to. The trick is knowing which half you are dealing with.

Ryan Horban

GPS Tracking Expert

How a Tracker Actually Works

Four steps, and understanding them settles several of the myths above on its own.

1. Satellites broadcast. Around thirty operational GPS satellites transmit timing and position signals continuously.
2. Your unit listens. Reading four or more satellites gives latitude, longitude and speed, typically within about ten to sixteen feet.
3. The unit reports. That position goes out over a cellular network to a server. This is the step that needs coverage.
4. The app draws it. Your dashboard turns the stream into a map, a route history and whatever alerts you set.

Five Mistakes That Make a Good Tracker Look Bad

Most complaints about tracking come down to one of these rather than to the hardware.

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