cell phone anonymity

Phillip H. Zakas pzakas at toucancapital.com
Mon Jan 8 08:39:50 PST 2001


Hi,

I don't believe cell phones can be queried while they're off.  The phone has
to xmit a pulse (to hear a pulse, crank up your PC speakers, turn on your
cell phone and place it within 3 inces of a speaker...you'll hear the
speakers produce static at a regular interval [about every 30 seconds or so
with my startac]).  In an unscientific study, I've placed my cell phone,
turned off, next to the speakers and not heard the familiar pulse.  Also
since you posed the question I ripped open my recently acquired Motorolla
Timeport.  Not seeing any activity in the xmit circuitry when the battery is
plugged in and the power is turned off.  Of course I'm having trouble
putting the case back on the phone correctly but I'll figure that out later
;)

phillip zakas




-----Original Message-----
X-Loop: openpgp.net
From: Ray Dillinger [mailto:bear at sonic.net]
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 11:10 AM
To: Phillip Zakas
Cc: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: cell phone anonymity




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










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