Nebraska GPS Tracking Laws (2026): Secret Tracking Is Now a Felony

Secretly attaching a GPS tracker to another person's car is a felony in Nebraska. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1337, operative July 18, 2026, prohibits installing or using a mobile tracking device without the other person's consent, and Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1339 makes a violation a Class IIIA felony.

Nebraska spent years as a gap state. Officers told victims that planting a tracker was not by itself a crime, and that was an accurate description of the law at the time. The Legislature closed the gap in LB935, which enacted §§ 28-1336 through 28-1339 as sections 13 through 16 of the act.

This guide covers what the new sections prohibit, the exceptions in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1338 and where each one stops, how consent ends automatically when a divorce is filed or a protection order issues, and what to do after finding a device. It is part of our GPS Tracking Laws by State series.

This article addresses Nebraska law: the mobile tracking device offense at Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1336 to 28-1339, the stalking statutes at §§ 28-311.02 to 28-311.04, protection orders under the Protection Orders Act, the statutory privacy tort at § 20-203, and the law enforcement tracking warrant at § 86-2,103. Statute text was verified against nebraskalegislature.gov on August 26, 2026. For other states, see the GPS tracking laws by state hub.

Is It Legal to Put a GPS Tracker on a Car in Nebraska?

No. Since July 18, 2026, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1337 has made it a crime to knowingly install a mobile tracking device on another person's property without that person's consent.

The same section separately prohibits causing a device to track another person or that person's property without consent, so monitoring the location data is its own offense even if someone else planted the unit. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1339 sets the penalty in a single sentence: a violation of § 28-1337 is a Class IIIA felony.

The prohibition yields only to the exceptions listed in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1338, and those are narrower than most people assume. An owner or lessee who tracks their own vehicle relies on the exception in § 28-1338(7), which carries its own conditions. And § 28-1337(1)(b) reaches causing a device to track another person, not only another person's property, so owning the car is not by itself the end of the analysis when someone else drives it.

One caveat runs through this entire page. The statute took effect on July 18, 2026, and no Nebraska appellate decision has yet interpreted any part of it. The text below is the operative law; how courts will read its edges is not yet settled.

What Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1337 Prohibits

Section 28-1337(1) creates three separate offenses:

Except as otherwise provided in section 28-1338, a person shall not knowingly: (a) Install a mobile tracking device on another person's property without the other person's consent; (b) Cause a mobile tracking device to track the position or movement of another person or another person's property without the other person's consent; or (c) Fail to remove or ensure the removal of a mobile tracking device that has been installed on another person's property with such person's consent when such consent has been revoked.

Three points matter for how this plays out in practice.

First, subdivision (1)(b) is not limited to whoever attached the device. A person who did not install anything but who pulls up another person's location without consent falls within the text.

Second, subdivision (1)(c) makes failure to remove a device its own crime. A tracker that was lawful when it went on becomes a felony exposure the moment consent is revoked and it stays in place.

Third, the statute says property, not vehicle. A device slipped into a bag, a coat, or a piece of luggage is covered on the same terms as one magneted to a bumper.

The Penalty: A Class IIIA Felony

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1339 classifies every violation of § 28-1337 as a Class IIIA felony. There is no misdemeanor tier and no separate aggravated offense.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-105(1) sets what that class means at sentencing: a maximum of three years imprisonment and eighteen months of post-release supervision, or a fine of up to $10,000, or both. The section prescribes no minimum for either imprisonment or post-release supervision, so probation is available.

Here is how the relevant Nebraska offenses compare:

Consent, and the Two Ways It Ends Without Anyone Saying So

Consent is the hinge of the whole statute, and Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1337(2) takes it out of the tracker's hands. Once consent has been given, it is deemed revoked in three situations.

The first is the obvious one. Under § 28-1337(2)(a), consent ends when the consenting person communicates to the other person that it is revoked.

The second is automatic. Under § 28-1337(2)(b), where the two people are married and either one files an action for divorce, annulment, or separate maintenance, consent is deemed revoked. The text attaches no notice requirement to this trigger. A spouse who shared location voluntarily during the marriage and then files, or is filed against, has withdrawn that consent by operation of the statute.

The third involves protection orders. Under § 28-1337(2)(c), consent is deemed revoked when the consenting person receives a protection order against the other person, and that revocation becomes effective when the person to whom consent was given has notice of the order.

Read those triggers together with § 28-1337(1)(c) and the practical rule is blunt. If a divorce is filed or a protection order lands, any device or location-sharing arrangement has to come off, and leaving it in place is a Class IIIA felony in its own right.

The Exceptions in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1338

Section 28-1338 lists eight situations where § 28-1337 does not apply. Each carries its own limits, and the limits are where people get into trouble.

1. Law enforcement electronic surveillance. A device installed and used in compliance with Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 86-271 to 86-2,115, the statutes that govern lawful electronic surveillance, is exempt.
2. Court-ordered tracking. A device installed and used under a court order is exempt, including tracking imposed as a condition of pretrial release, probation, parole, or post-release supervision.
3. Parents and legal guardians of a minor child, but only in the four situations described in the next section.
4. Caregivers of a vulnerable or senior adult, and only where the adult's treating physician certifies that the device is necessary to ensure that adult's safety. Without the physician certification, the exception does not apply.
5. Legitimate business or government purposes. A person acting in good faith on behalf of a business entity for a legitimate business purpose, or on behalf of a governmental entity for a legitimate government purpose, is exempt. The statute expressly states that this subdivision does not apply to a private investigator.
6. Private investigators, on tighter terms. A licensed investigator acting in the normal course of the business must have the consent of the owner of the property where the device goes, and the purpose must be one of four listed ones: investigating criminal offenses committed, threatened, or suspected; locating a known fugitive from justice; locating lost or stolen property or court-awarded assets; or investigating workers' compensation claims. The exception is unavailable if the client is the subject of a protection order, or if the investigator knows or reasonably should know the client is seeking the services to aid in committing a crime.
7. Vehicle owners and lessees. An owner or lessee may install a device on the vehicle during the period of ownership or lease, but only if the device is removed before the title transfers or the lease expires, or the new owner or the lessor consents in writing to leaving it, or the owner at the time of installation was the vehicle's original manufacturer. Dealers and lenders should read subdivision (7) closely: a device installed while the dealership owned the car does not stay lawful after the title moves unless the buyer consents in writing.
8. Aircraft operators. A person or business entity may track a fixed-wing aircraft or rotorcraft it operates or manages under 14 C.F.R. part 91 or part 135.

Can a Parent Track a Child in Nebraska?

Sometimes, and the qualifier does real work. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1338(3) is not a blanket parental exemption. It protects a parent or legal guardian tracking a minor child in four defined situations:

• The parents or legal guardians are lawfully married to each other and are not separated or otherwise living apart, and either of them consents to the installation.
• The parent or legal guardian is the sole surviving parent or legal guardian of the child.
• The parent or legal guardian has sole custody of the child.
• The parents or legal guardians are divorced, separated, or otherwise living apart, neither has sole custody, and both consent to the installation.

The gap is easy to miss. A separated or divorced parent who shares custody and installs a tracker on the child's phone or car without the other parent's consent is outside subdivision (3), and § 28-1337 applies with its Class IIIA felony penalty. Co-parents who want location sharing after a separation should document the other parent's consent in writing or through the parenting plan.

Can My Employer Track My Car in Nebraska?

Company-owned and company-leased vehicles are the easy case. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1338(7), the owner or lessee of a motor vehicle may install a device on it, and § 28-1338(5) separately exempts a person acting in good faith on behalf of a business entity for a legitimate business purpose. Fleet tracking on company vehicles is lawful, and no Nebraska statute requires the employer to give notice, although most fleet operators disclose it anyway.

An employee's personal vehicle is a different question, and the statute changed the analysis. That car is the employee's property, so a covert installation is exactly what § 28-1337(1)(a) describes. The employer would have to rely on the good-faith legitimate-business-purpose exception in § 28-1338(5), and no Nebraska court has yet decided whether secretly monitoring an employee's own car qualifies.

The safe path is written consent. An employer that needs mileage or routing data from a personal vehicle should get the employee's agreement in writing, define when tracking is active, and remember that consent can be revoked under § 28-1337(2)(a) at any time, after which the device has to come off.

Employers should also review Nebraska's rules on employee monitoring, workplace recording and consent, and surveillance camera laws.

AirTags, Phone Apps, and Location Sharing

The Legislature wrote the definition broadly enough that hardware is beside the point. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1336(2) defines a mobile tracking device as:

any physical device, digital application, software, firmware, account setting, or technological configuration that is used to collect, transmit, record, or disclose information regarding the position or movement of an individual.

An AirTag, a Tile, a SmartTag, a stalkerware app, a family-locator subscription, and a location-sharing setting left switched on in someone's account all sit inside that language. Slipping an item tracker into another person's bag without consent is the same offense as bolting a GPS unit under their car.

Apple and Google build unwanted-tracker alerts into iPhones and Android phones, and those alerts are frequently how a person discovers a device. Save the alert screenshots. They record the device identifier and how long it has been traveling with you, which is evidence.

When Tracking Is Also Stalking

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-311.03 provides that any person who willfully harasses another person, or a family or household member of that person, with intent to injure, terrify, threaten, or intimidate commits stalking. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-311.04 makes a violation a Class IIIA felony, the same class as the tracking offense.

Section 28-311.02(2) supplies the definitions. Harass means a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously terrifies, threatens, or intimidates and serves no legitimate purpose. Course of conduct means a pattern of acts over a period of time, and the statute's illustrative list names following, detaining, restraining personal liberty, stalking, telephoning, contacting, and otherwise communicating.

That list still does not name electronic monitoring, which is precisely why a standalone tracking offense mattered. Under the pre-2026 law, a tracker-only case often had nowhere to go. Now a prosecutor can charge § 28-1337 on the device itself and add § 28-311.03 where the surveillance is part of a broader campaign of harassment.

Protection Orders and How They Are Enforced

A person who has been harassed may petition for a harassment protection order under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 26-104, which lets the court enjoin the respondent from restraining the petitioner's liberty, from harassing or otherwise disturbing the petitioner's peace, and from telephoning, contacting, or otherwise communicating with the petitioner. Section 26-104(3) also allows the court to order any other relief it deems necessary for the petitioner's safety.

Violations carry criminal penalties under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 26-118. A harassment protection order violation is a Class II misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class I misdemeanor for any later one. A domestic abuse or sexual assault protection order violation is a Class I misdemeanor for a first offense and escalates through Class IV, Class IIIA, and Class IIA felonies for repeat offenses. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 26-119, an officer who has probable cause to believe a protection order was violated shall make an arrest, with or without a warrant, where the petitioner provides the officer a copy of the order or the officer confirms with the local law enforcement agency that the order exists.

The order also does work under the tracking statute. Once the respondent has notice of it, § 28-1337(2)(c) treats any consent to tracking as revoked. Our Nebraska restraining order guide walks through the petition process.

When Police Can Track a Vehicle

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 86-2,103 remains Nebraska's law enforcement tracking provision. It authorizes a district court to issue a warrant or other order for the installation of a mobile tracking device, and to authorize use of the device inside the court's jurisdiction and outside it where the device was installed in that jurisdiction.

LB935 also widened that section's own definition. Since July 18, 2026, § 86-2,103(2) covers both an electronic or mechanical device that permits tracking and a software program installed on a person's electronic device that permits tracking.

Constitutional limits sit on top of the statute. In United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012), the U.S. Supreme Court held that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements is a Fourth Amendment search. The Court did not decide whether such a search requires a warrant, but a search ordinarily does. Sections 28-1338(1) and 28-1338(2) exempt tracking carried out in compliance with the electronic surveillance statutes or under a court order, so lawful police tracking is outside the new criminal prohibition.

Suing in Civil Court Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-203

The criminal case belongs to the prosecutor. The civil case belongs to the person who was tracked, and Nebraska is one of the few states that wrote its privacy torts into statute, at Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-201 to 20-211.

Section 20-203 is the operative one for tracking. It provides that any person, firm, or corporation that trespasses or intrudes upon a natural person in his or her place of solitude or seclusion, if the intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, is liable for invasion of privacy.

A covert log of everywhere a person drove for weeks is a strong candidate for a highly offensive intrusion. A civil claim does not depend on a prosecutor filing charges, uses a lower standard of proof than a criminal case, and seeks money damages from the person who planted the device. The two routes are independent, so a person can pursue both.

What to Do If You Find a Tracker on Your Car

1. Photograph it in place before touching it. Capture the position, any wiring, and every serial or model number. Documentation is what makes a report and a lawsuit possible later.
2. Report it to police and ask for a report number. Since July 18, 2026, the installation itself is a chargeable Class IIIA felony under Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1337 and 28-1339, not merely evidence of some other offense.
3. Think about safety before removing it. In a domestic violence situation, taking the device off signals to the person who planted it that you found it. Safety planning with an advocate may come first. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
4. Preserve your phone's tracker alerts. Unwanted-tracker notifications record the device identifier and the duration of travel, and the tracker's account registration can identify who bought it.
5. Consider a protection order. A harassment protection order under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 26-104 is enforceable under § 26-118, and notice of the order revokes any tracking consent under § 28-1337(2)(c).
6. Talk to a Nebraska civil attorney about an invasion of privacy claim under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-203, which proceeds independently of any criminal charge.

How Nebraska Got Here: LB 1059 and LB935

The tracking-device scheme was written first as a standalone bill, LB 1059. That bill did not become law on its own. Its provisions surfaced instead inside LB935, a broader criminal-law act, and it is LB935 that Nebraska's statute books credit.

The source notes printed with each section make the lineage explicit. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1336 is Laws 2026, LB935, § 13. Section 28-1337 is § 14 of the act, § 28-1338 is § 15, and § 28-1339 is § 16. All four carry the same operative date of July 18, 2026. LB935 also amended § 28-311.04 as section 18 of the act and § 86-2,103 as section 44.

Because the sections are new, there is no Nebraska case law construing the good-faith business exception, the scope of property, or how the automatic divorce revocation interacts with jointly titled vehicles. Anyone relying on an exception should treat those edges as unsettled.

Neighboring states took different paths. Compare Iowa GPS tracking laws, Kansas GPS tracking laws, and Missouri GPS tracking laws.

Sources

The statutory text on this page was read directly from the Nebraska Legislature's official statute pages on August 26, 2026. Primary sources are listed below.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It describes Nebraska law as verified on August 26, 2026, including Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1336 to 28-1339, which became operative on July 18, 2026 and which no Nebraska court has yet interpreted. Laws change and their application depends on specific facts. If you are dealing with a tracking or stalking situation in Nebraska, consult a licensed Nebraska attorney. If you are in danger, call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

More Nebraska Laws

• Nebraska Dashcam Laws
• Nebraska Data Privacy Laws
• Nebraska Drone Laws
• Nebraska Employee Monitoring Laws
• Nebraska Recording Laws
• Nebraska Restraining Order Laws