radioman Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Talking with a friend earlier today we were discussing Google latitude. As I understand it there exists the possibility to locate a cellphone within a particular geographical area, I'm not sure about the accuracy. Trying to understand how this works I presume that querying the phone company database should identify which base station it is talking to. Is this a possibility? Is such information available? Are there other mechanisms for doing the same thing? Interested to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Your phone card provider can track you within a few hundred or a few dozens meters, depending on how many transmission towers are in the area. Police and secret service is using technique for to track criminals (or other people ) via the provider's database. The database can also be used for learn about every of your movement in recent days. Some providers in the US offer tracking services for mobile phones, for examples for parents for to track their kids. For this they install a special software on the mobile phone. Usually the person being tracked has to agree to being tracked... More details: Wikipedia: Mobile Phone Tracking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imperial Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 all phones now in the USA have some kind of tracking on them , either GPS or cell tower triangulation, This is so when you call 911 (emergancy) they know where you are, It has always been possible since your phone "pings" the local tower to tell it you can recieve a call. Now with GPS they can get closer. I have a program on one of my USA phones that can track the phone by GPS and you can watch it on their website, it works decent , but when my car is parked over night and the phone is transmitting you get hits 50-150ft away from my location, Maybe someone knows if the cell tower ID (in the background data info) is sent to the recieving party when you make a call, It is when you send an email ! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weird Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 My phone has both triangulation through combination of towers/wifi/etc and GPS. The first is accurate within a couple blocks. The second is accurate to something like 6 ft. GPS combined with google maps will tell me I'm on the wrong side of the road even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 When your in Thailand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted September 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Certainly a phone with GPS should be able to tell you where it is with some degree of accuracy but not really what I was aiming for. It's the doing it remotely bit that intrigues me. Picture the scenario of a sponsored girl pretending to be up country on the farm, but in reality still in town hammering punters. Sponsoring farang back home in farangland looks on his pc and types in her phone number which plots or otherwise identifies the cell stations her phone is actually talking to. The mismatch might lead to a little less in her monthly stipend! This is the bit I'm keen to know about. It seems this is what Latitude is about. Now, when is it coming and can I be a beta tester? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Certainly a phone with GPS should be able to tell you where it is with some degree of accuracy but not really what I was aiming for. It's the doing it remotely bit that intrigues me. Picture the scenario of a sponsored girl pretending to be up country on the farm, but in reality still in town hammering punters. Sponsoring farang back home in farangland looks on his pc and types in her phone number which plots or otherwise identifies the cell stations her phone is actually talking to. The mismatch might lead to a little less in her monthly stipend! This is the bit I'm keen to know about. It seems this is what Latitude is about. Now, when is it coming and can I be a beta tester? Just give her a smart phone with GPS and install tracking software... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 latitude already there - try latest nokia, sony E etc gps phones... accuracy down to few meters at best, but yeah the person with the application need to 'accept' the tracking per case or always run run.... tracking based on cell towers alone I believe is only possible when calls are made i.e. voice, messages, data transmissions etc. just having phone on (idle mode) may not cut it which is most of the time yeah for majority users... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 The military can track via GPS to within 1 meter...but I never said this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 The military can track via GPS to within 1 meter...but I never said this Everybody nows this. Actually, consumers only receive crippled GPS signals, because of the US military. The U.S. reserves the right to limit the signal strength or accuracy of the GPS systems, or to shut down public GPS access completely (although it has never done the latter), so that only the U.S. military and its allies would be able to use it in time of conflict. Until 2000, the precision of the signal available to non-U.S.-military users was limited (due to a timing pulse distortion process known as selective availability). That's why Europe *tries* to install an own GPS satallite network called " Galileo ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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