History Main / TrackingDevice

* In ''Literature/TheMouseWatch'', the titular heroes give their new recruit Bernie a [[HairDecorations hair clip]] that contains one of these. She eventually tricks [[BigBad Dr. Thornpaw]] into putting it in his pocket.

* ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' has tracking devices which can be fired out of pistols. In both the movie and the show, Togusa fires one out of his revolver to track a car.

* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'':

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. Commodore Oh gives Jurati a tracking device which she's actually required to chew before swallowing, causing it to dissolve into her body. When she realises a hostile spacecraft is using it to track them, [[StressVomit her first urge is to vomit]] (she was also PostStressOvereating at the time). This has no effect, so she injects herself with a lethal neurotoxin to neutralize the tracking agent. Fortunately her colleagues are able to revive her.

** In Season 2, the Hand abduct a group of people who have been saved by Daredevil. Fortunately [[SaveTheVillain one of them is a criminal]] who is now on parole with an ankle monitor, enabling them to be tracked down.

** In Season 3, Wilson Fisk is under house arrest and has to wear a leg monitor that will sound an alarm if he goes outside his designated area. However Fisk has had a secret room constructed ''underneath'' his bedroom from which he can control his criminal empire, making it look as if he's never left the room.

* Anime/Eden: It appears all robots have a tracking device as standard equipment. And they know it's there, because A37 and E92 intentionally break off their transmitter antennas so they can't be found or followed when they take Sara to a place where they suspect she can be raised safely.

* Early in ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', after [[spoiler:Hegemon Ingvalt]] walked away in apparent victory, the near-immobile [[spoiler:Nove Nakajima]] contacts [[spoiler:Subaru Nakajima]] and [[TheReveal reveals]] that she planted a sensor on her during their battle, so they can track her down and capture her at any time they want.

* In the second half of ''Anime/CrossAnge'' as the remnants of the Norma have restarted Libertus and the 5 pilots who were either captured, saved, or otherwise swayed over to [[FaceHeelTurn Embryo's side]] and given [[SuperPrototype Ragna-mail]] in which to chase their former teammates, [[WrenchWench Mei]] somehow manages to have devices planted into each one, which in their case, not only allows her comrades to locate Embryo's base of operations, but to also lay low as long as their side is unable to engage directly in combat.
* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''. A captured A21 terrorist has the device implanted under his skin, so our heroes use a microwave oven to destroy it (holding down the door safety button so the microwave will work with the door open). Unfortunately he then pickpockets a mobile phone from Kaname, and signals his location that way.

* ''Brannigan'' (1975). The police plant a magnetically-attached bug on the vehicle of the mob lawyer used to make the ransom exchange, but he finds it and plants it on another vehicle while stopped in traffic. Unfortunately Creator/JohnWayne has planted a second bug inside one of the bundles of ransom money.

* In ''Series/DayBreak2006'', [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Buchalter and Fencik]] plant a device under Hopper's car so they won't lose track of him. When Hopper finds out, he sends them on a WildGooseChase.

** In ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', Silas Stone uses lasers on the Mother Box he used to rebuild his son Victor as Cyborg, and perishes in the process. At first it's thought he sought to destroy it, but in reality he did so to superheat the Box, so the Justice League will be able to track its heat signature via Bruce Wayne's satellites.

** In ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', Bruce Wayne puts a tracking device in Arthur Curry's jacket when they first meet, but it becomes pointless because Curry discards it to swim away in the ocean.

* ComicBook/BlackWindow's gauntlets can fire tracking devices. They were inspired by Spidey's web-shooters InUniverse.

* Also commonly used by ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', usually ones with a "spider" theme or mark. It was a ''Spider-Man'' comic that [[https://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/06/24/when-spider-man-invented-electronic-tagging/ led]] to the invention of electronic tagging.

* In ''Axiom's End'' by Lindsay Ellis, Cora Sabino has a tracker implanted by [[spoiler: the alien being Ampersand]] that allows monitoring of her location and health while she acts as an interpreter.

* Hanaoka the butler from ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'' lets slip that he keeps track of Nikaidou through GPS before poorly covering up with an alternate explanation as to how he's able to find his young master so easily. Played entirely for laughs.

Most tracking or surveillance devices depicted in fiction are so small that they cannot include important components such as a power source, antenna, microphones, etc. This used to seem like magical tech back in the day, but as TechnologyMarchesOn with the advent of mobile phones that allow tracking by cell tower, and USB Pen Drive-sized GPS trackers, extremely miniature tracking devices are rapidly becoming TruthInTelevision. Indeed, any tracking device that isn't miniscule these days probably qualifies as an IncrediblyObviousBug.