Re: Another Cellular Victim
They report that he was tracked via his cellphone use. What this country needs is a good anonymous cellphone net.
Really. And what's more: when the Colombian drug lord was located via his cellular use, the story was that the NSA had to bring special equipment into the country to do the tracking. That doesn't wash here. It looks like at least some switches in Amerika are already equipped to read out locations for individual phones. They probably don't even have to wait for you to make a call - they can call you, or even use the phone's automatic pings. --- Jef
Jef Poskanzer writes:
It looks like at least some switches in Amerika are already equipped to read out locations for individual phones.
This is not actually that surprising. All they need is to know which phones are using a band on a cell site, and they narrow the search down to a relatively small area. I seriously doubt that they can do triangulation (I mean, they *could*, but there's not much likelihood that the cellular operators would incorporate something complicated and expensive but useless into the system), though they could easily track movement by noting the progess of a phone as it was handed off from cell to cell.
They probably don't even have to wait for you to make a call - they can call you, or even use the phone's automatic pings.
This would be a little scary, though possible. The problem could be dealt with by ensuring that a phone always gives off an audible alarm when it's contacted while on-hook. Or, of course, you just turn the phone off. -- | GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com> | | TAKE TWA TO CAIRO. ||| Tivoli Systems, Austin, TX: | | (actual fortune cookie) ||| "Like A Little Bit of Semi-Heaven" |
Bear in mind that OJ himself placed a call to 911. You sort of expect to lose some of your privacy when you do that. As everyone knows, when you call 911 from a landline telephone your phone number and address are automatically displayed on the dispatcher's console. As strongly pro-privacy as I am, I'd find it hard to argue against this particular feature. If I called 911 in an emergency, I'd *want* my address to show up. Especially if I was too panicked or sick or whatever to give it over the phone. What I don't know, and am trying to find out, is whether there are any comparable features in the LA/Orange cellular and 911 systems that would have displayed the caller's cell site to the 911 dispatcher, or whether some ad-hoc telephone company help was required. But however it was done, it worked. This does tend to undermine the FBI's claim that they can't catch crooks using cell phone systems... Phil
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It looks like at least some switches in Amerika are already equipped to read out locations for individual phones. They probably don't even
No doubt this will eventually be marketed as a feature you can pay extra for... intended so people can track their spouses' movements so they know when they're getting home, if they're stuck in a traffic jam, etc. Such "legitimate" uses don't really make the prospect of carrying a device to track my every movement all that attractive, unless of course I can turn off that feature by flicking a switch on my phone. Mark ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Carter carterm@spartan.ac.brocku.ca PGP key available by finger. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLgKOK2cmVnbEt/gBAQHo7QQAoafZkoVTPlZkUfAUAMPxi7JeKaM3nS41 pZn3mWDZUa0m/sNrsEU9QzOFHmBagLrAHrfLC+tbxClGAbb4XHSFiH+dw5gIPzvY vrg0Qh/xwlZp+D1hV/C4YuQN5qbWwSX+DzqPhbe1nVNh/2rjpTKTULDglt7B+lJx tLuQ8iOXpsI= =9Mhz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (4)
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carterm＠spartan.ac.brocku.ca -
Jef Poskanzer -
m5＠vail.tivoli.com -
Phil Karn