Cell Phone Monitoring Technology

[LAX]

you can only get an area they are at , the phone will hook up with the nearest cell site , maybe the phone company can switch a phone from site to site and try and triangulate the position , but its not GPS so you would get a location within a few blocks ,

 

Here in the USA I can set one of my phones up as a tracking devise , it uses GPS and can get within 10-20 feet of where its sitting ,

 

I have done it and its rather spooky that its so easy , you could just drop the phone in someones car and see where they go all day long

 

Dave

[shygye]

That has been done. A guy wired a GPS cell phone into his ex-wife's car. Every time the car was started it powered up the cell phone. He stalked his ex-wife where ever she went.

[WorldFun]

cav,

 

that should be possible (operators supporting police for those cases) & very useful for the police, but unfortunately they need to know the suspects phone number to do it & they need the suspect to be unaware & continue using that same number...

 

lax,

 

few if any 'historical' location data is saved in phone/network databases/memory mainly because only the current location is important for the mobile system(s).

I suppose the networks billing systems however usually running 1month they would store at least that much including probably various location data while the phones memory is easily wiped by a power cycle

[shygye]

Link

 

... Although the Kims had a cellular phone with them, their remote location in the mountains was out of range of the cellular network, rendering the phone unusable. Two Edge Wireless engineers, Eric Fuqua and Noah Pugsley, contacted search and rescue authorities offering their help in the search. On Saturday, December 2, they began searching through the data logs of cell sites, trying to find records of repeaters to which the Kims' cellphone may have connected. They discovered that on November 26, 2006 at around 1:30 a.m., the Kim's cellphone made a brief automatic connection to a cell site near Glendale, Oregon, and retrieved two text messages. Through the data logs, the engineers determined that the cell phone was in a specific area west of the cellular tower. They then used a computer program to determine which areas in the mountains were within a line-of-sight to the cellular tower. This narrowed the search area tremendously, and finally focused rescue efforts on Bear Camp Road. ...

[LAX]

the link above is interesting , but would they have been able to do anything if he had not looked at the text messages ?

Was there other info than the text messages ,

 

in a practical way the cell site needs to know who is in its service area so it can direct calls to it , but if you drove into the cell sites area , pinged the tower , and turned the phone off (batteries died etc) how long would the tower keep your info ?

 

If I was hiding I would worry about the phones with GPS (10-20 ft target) compared to a regular phone where cell sites are blocks apart ,

But even blocks apart will not save you if "they" are really looking for you,

 

Osama Bin ladan does not use cell phones , too many of his top guys have been tracked by thier phones and blown up by American drone planes....

 

interesting and scary stuff if you are really trying to hide from the wife as you make a side trip to BKK !

 

Dave

[WorldFun]

why worry about hiding from your wife since since the she & the general public still do NOT have access to the cell tower logs (location info) & thus there really is nothing new or 'interesting' under the sun in regards to 'being tracked by using a mobile anywhere'?

 

sure 'emergencies', criminals etc are exceptions to that!

 

 

[LAX]

well since 500- baht will get you out of a ticket how much do you think it would cost for a Thai PI to get the "private" phone records ?

 

The GPS phone thing is more a USA deal, since so many are using cell phones as their only phone 911 emergancy could not find people needing help,

 

When I get to BKK, the BG party line pretty much lets most of my regulars know I am in town

 

Dave

[shygye]

the link above is interesting , but would they have been able to do anything if he had not looked at the text messages ?

Was there other info than the text messages ,

 

in a practical way the cell site needs to know who is in its service area so it can direct calls to it , but if you drove into the cell sites area , pinged the tower , and turned the phone off (batteries died etc) how long would the tower keep your info ?

 

...

Dave

 

I recall the techs saying the "ping" data is held for 24 hrs, so without the text message there would be no record.

[Weird]

I imagine each has it's own policies in regards to data retention, but there are also some laws in regards to minimum retention as well.