This week, privacy experts and advocates from around the world gathered in Valenica, Spain to meet and discuss how to combat government surveillance. As if on cue, one of the activists discovered an ominous tracking device attached to the bottom of their car.

Jacob Appelbaum, one of the privacy leaders behind behind the Tor Project, is trying to gather information about the mysterious device:

On March 4th, 2015, we found a tracking device inside of the wheel well of a car belonging to an attendee of the Circumvention Tech Festival in Valencia, Spain. This was reported in the local media.

If you have information about this device - please send information to jacob at appelbaum dot net using gpg.

The device was magnetically mounted inside of the left wheel well of the car. The battery is attached by cable to the tracking device. The battery was magnetically mounted to the frame of the car. The tracking device was similarly magnetically mounted. The device itself has an external magnetically mounted GPS antenna. It has a very simple free hanging GSM antenna. The device included a Movistar SIM card for GSM network access. The entire device was wrapped in black tape.

One Reddit user speculates that the vaguely sinister device could've come from this Spanish gadget store—although that doesn't even begin to explain the questions those in attendance must have.

Photos via Jacob Appelbaum

Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
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