Skip Navigation
Alexis Madrigal

Alexis Madrigal - Alexis Madrigal is a senior editor at The Atlantic. He's the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology.
More

The New York Observer calls him, "for all intents and purposes, the perfect modern reporter." Madrigal co-founded Longshot magazine, a high-speed media experiment that garnered attention from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC. While at Wired.com, he built Wired Science into one of the most popular blogs in the world. The site was nominated for best magazine blog by the MPA and best science Web site in the 2009 Webby Awards. He also co-founded Haiti ReWired, a groundbreaking community dedicated to the discussion of technology, infrastructure, and the future of Haiti.

He's spoken at Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley, SXSW, E3, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and his writing was anthologized in Best Technology Writing 2010 (Yale University Press).

Madrigal is a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's Office for the History of Science and Technology. Born in Mexico City, he grew up in the exurbs north of Portland, Oregon, and now lives in Oakland.
« Previous Madrigal | Next Madrigal » Email Email Print Print

The GPS Tracker the FBI Uses to Surveil Targets

By Alexis Madrigal

May 9 2011, 2:45 PM ET Comment

Kim Zetter at Wired's Threat Level reports an important and fascinating story today about Kathy Thomas, an environmental and animal rights' activist, who the FBI tracked with a GPS device. Thomas found the tracker under her car after she noticed that agents had stopped following her around.

Thomas gave Wired the device, who handed it off to iFixit for the "first-ever dissection of an FBI tracker." You can watch a video of the process above.

The Constitutionality of such surveillance is in question, as Zetter notes, but it's clear that law enforcement officials aren't waiting for a high court ruling to use the technology.



Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Oops! Now You Can Track the Tweets Politicians Tried to Delete Now You Can Track the Tweets Politicians Tried to Delete
How 'Natural' Is Stevia? How 'Natural' Is Stevia?
Sex Selection in America: Why It Persists and How We Can Change It Sex-Selective Abortion Persists in America
Plastic Clamshell Packaging Is the Worst Plastic Clamshell Packaging Is the Worst
'Black Lagoon': The First, Great Pretty-Girl-Attacked-By-Aquatic-Beast Film? The First Great Pretty-Girl-Attacked-By-Aquatic-Beast Film

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Correspondents

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Afghanistan: May 2012

Jun 1, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)