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>       |
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|     (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.

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