TRACK-A-HACK

Judge OKs GPS watch on cabbies

Cabbies beware: The city has the right to track wherever you go via your GPS, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Queens hack Hassan ElNahal had sued the city and the Taxi and Limousine Commission in 2013, charging that the TLC used his cab’s GPS data against him without probable cause or a search warrant.

The devices were installed in cabs in 2004 and used to crack down on dirty drivers a couple years later, nailing more than half of the city’s nearly 22,000 cabbies for rampantly overcharging customers. ElNahal was among those busted.

But the appeals-court judges said the TLC tracking was constitutional because the GPS had already been installed in El-Nahal’s car before he took possession of it. “The possibility that the government may have trespassed or physically intruded on someone’s property does not necessarily entitle someone else who later acquires an interest in that property to claim that the government trespassed or physically intruded on her property,” wrote Justice Debra Ann Livingston.

El-Nahal’s lawyer said the ruling could create a situation where the government can spy on anyone who drives a vehicle.

“The decision creates a potentially dangerous precedent because it would allow the government to require car makers to put GPS in cars that the government could then use to track indi- vidual drivers,” said lawyer Daniel Ackman.

The city said it is happy with the ruling.

“The fact is that this technology, which enables the collection of trip data formerly captured with a pencil and a clipboard, serves a far better public purpose, supporting everything from traffic engineering improvements to market analysis,” said Allan Fromberg, spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Only yellow and green cabs are required to be equipped with GPS.