[Stalking by Cellphone]

[coderman]

On 2/7/06, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> ...
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1699156,00.html
>
> For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile
> phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night,
> within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on.
> ...
> I knew that the police could do
> this, and telecommunications companies, but not any old random person
> with five minutes access to someone else's phone.

remember those cell phone number history sales?  that same information
feed contains tower identifiers for every call placed.  those
identifiers in turn can be linked to GPS coordinates and
inter|extrapolated location of the caller, thus the 150 yard accuracy.
 (this is how some carriers are approaching E911 as well).

does anyone really expect strong privacy from any telecommunications
provider these days?  time to roll your own...