cell phone anonymity

[Ray Dillinger]

On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Phillip Zakas wrote:

>
>Just a minor correction to the below posting: cell phone locations are NOT
>calculated using GPS.  They're triangulated via the three nearest cell sites
>reading the cell phone signal.  Accuracy is much lower than with GPS, but
>good enough for cops to, say, find a stranded motorist on a highway.  I
>believe resolution is somewhere around 40 meters in densely populated areas
>(where there are many cell phone towers).  This resolution figure varies
>from region to region.
>

Hm.  Okay.  I knew there were locators in them, and had assumed that 
they were GPS.  My mistake.  

Does anyone know any particulars about whether these phones can be 
queried for their locations while not in use?


>IMHO, the real privacy issue with cell phones is the security of a
>conversation. 

Yes indeed.  Privacy is a tougher thing to achieve than anonymity, 
at least with cell phones. 

				Bear