Detecting A GPS On Your Car
Who Can Find A GPS Tracker On My Car?
If you believe an ex-boyfriend, husband, or wife seems to know everywhere you have been there could be a strong chance that they have placed a hidden tracking device on your vehicle. The thought of someone secretly tracking your vehicle can be frightening, but before you allow paranoia to ruin your peace-of-mind the first thing you should do is find out if a GPS tracker is actually on the vehicle.
Best Signal Scanner Device Detector for GPS Tracker
There are a lot of great articles that explain how to find a GPS tracker on your car (like this one here), but if you want to learn the truth as soon as possible then here are the top 4 ways to get help finding a hidden GPS tracker!
Related: Top 10 Best Spouse GPS Trackers
4 Best Ways To Detect Hidden GPS Devices
1. Invest In A GPS Scanner
Bug Detector For GPS Device
GPS scanners or bug detectors are counter-surveillance tools that can pick up signals that are transmitted from any live GPS tracker. Simply, turn the GPS scanner on and walk around the vehicle to locate the hidden real time GPS tracker. Scanning equipment requires no technical experience, and the products can be purchased for as little as $49.00 on Amazon. However, it is important to note, GPS scanners can not detect passive tracking devices. Those are the vehicle trackers that simply record the driving activity and then are manually removed from a vehicle.
2. Contact An Audio/Alarm Installer
As mentioned earlier, a GPS scanner will not pick up all forms of GPS tracking devices that is why a detailed visual inspection is really one of the best ways to find a tracker on your car. And who better to perform this scan than the businesses that are typically hired to install GPS tracking devices: audio and alarm service installation companies. Not only will an audio/alarm installer scan the outside of the vehicle, but they can pop open your dashboard or stereo to see if a real time GPS tracker is connected to the 12-volt system of your vehicle.
3. Reach Out To Law Enforcement
Honestly, police are not the best equipped to scan a vehicle for a tracking device but they do sometimes know the popular spots a GPS tracker might be hidden on a vehicle. Not to mention, having a formal report taken so your concerns are documented on public record could be helpful if you do in fact determine an ex-lover or previous spouse placed a tracking system on your car.
4. Scan Car For GPS Tracker Yourself
If you can’t wait 2 days for Amazon to ship you a scanner, there are no audio/alarm installers in your area, and your local police don’t seem eager to send a uniformed officer to scan your vehicle then the lat best option is to simply scan the car yourself. That means checking the popular spots a person might hide a GPS tracker on your car (under the vehicle, in the glovebox, OBD2 port, under a seat), and seeing if there is something there. Also, don’t forget to use a mirror to get a more detailed view of the undercarriage of the vehicle!
Is There An App To Detect A GPS Tracker?
If you are researching a detector scanner to detect hidden GPS tracking devices that might be on your car you probably have wondered if there was an iPhone or Android app to detect GPS signals. Unfortunately, cell phones are not the best tool to detect spy devices no matter what the average rating is on a spy app found in the Apple Store says. The reality is any bug detector needs to be carefully used in order to locate the power supply of a real time GPS tracker whether the device is plugged into the OBDii port, hidden under a car, or positioned somewhere a scanner app won’t pick up the live GPS signals.
Please note that GPS data loggers do not transmit GPS signals or use SIM cards so they will not be picked up by bug detectors.
Sage is a freelance writer with a background in information technology.
