Court allows warrantless cell location tracking

[joe4444]

How exactly is this tracking done?????

Gps i know but how does it work?Is this any phone that can actually be tracked through gps?

Sad shit what our planet is coming to.I hope my kids understand how much i meant it the other day when i told them i didn't want them to have children of there own and why.

FD

It's not quite as accurate as GPS. I don't know for certain, but I'm fairly sure they would not be able to pinpoint you to say "he's at the hydro store, red team go!" but instead could see that you're within a block or two radius.

As for how it works, when you're on the move with your phone it is constantly pinging cell phone towers in the area in order to determine which one has the best reception. Therefore, based on the towers your phone is pinging and the signal strength it has with each tower they (their computers) can do some math to estimate your location.

Yes, we are losing another level of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution. It sucks, and I'm pissed. However, from a practical perspective I'd say only a very small group of us could be endangered by this, so most need not worry. Consider this: If LEO decides to put a trace on your phone (out of the thousands of people in your area), then that probably means you already fucked up somehow.

...but I'm overly paranoid in general (for a micro grower), so I will definitely be leaving my phone at home for any/all future trips to the hydro store! If I had a remote location grow, then I would absolutely leave my phone behind. Better safe than incarcerated!

 

[joe4444]

Start believing.....has been going on for years and been accepted by the courts. This article is from 2006, long before Obama took power.

http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdropping-tool/150467

Is there a list of phones that can turn on without your knowledge?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Triangulation is used to approximate location.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2385973_triangulate-cell-phone.html

 

[joe4444]

Triangulation is used to approximate location.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2385973_triangulate-cell-phone.html

Thanks for summing up my post in 1 word.

 

[Protostele]

Is there a list of phones that can turn on without your knowledge?

Other than the three examples in the article I posted, I don't know if a list exists. I doubt the manufacturers would consider these "back doors" a major selling point.

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones,

The best way to avoid being tracked or monitored if a person is paranoid about it, would be to not carry a cell phone.

 

[Brad]

The best way to avoid being tracked or monitored if a person is paranoid about it, would be to not carry a cell phone.

best advice in this thread

 

[Nirvana_Papaya]

Almost all cell phones can have their mics remotely activated, even if the cell phones are turned off. It's how the FBI spied on the mafia recently.

 

[cfltime]

Almost all cell phones can have their mics remotely activated, even if the cell phones are turned off. It's how the FBI spied on the mafia recently.

I for one would like to know how a cell phones MIC can be turned on when there is no powerto make the mic work. (BATTERY TAKEN OUT).

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdropping-tool/150467

 

[Zen Master]

the navigation app on the iPhone shows your little digital car turning as you turn as well, a block or two my ass, that was years ago, triangulation (probably easier for leo to do legally) to get a general idea, but if they wanted to it wouldn't be that much harder to get a pinpoint location/time.

 

[FlaDankster]

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdropping-tool/150467

Gee thanks.........now ya got me talkin shit to my phone.

Sad sad sad sad where we are heading.

 

[bs0]

The problem at hand is this differentiation:
Your cell phone is not a person and has no expectation of privacy.

It's fickle and dumb. They can't use it as proof in a prosecution because you can use the defense "my phone wasn't with me" to counter their assertion... It's a two-way street.

However: in the same vein as the GPS shit from a month or two back they can and will use it to try to find incriminating evidence... Which is exactly why I feel it is entirely against the 4th amendment. The people most at risk are outdoor growers or anyone who has a covert grow location.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Gee thanks.........now ya got me talkin shit to my phone.

Sad sad sad sad where we are heading.

Apparently it's been going on since 2003. The article is from 2006.

 

[joe4444]

the navigation app on the iPhone shows your little digital car turning as you turn as well, a block or two my ass, that was years ago, triangulation (probably easier for leo to do legally) to get a general idea, but if they wanted to it wouldn't be that much harder to get a pinpoint location/time.

That's because the iPhone also has GPS. Phones without GPS can only be triangulated.

 

[real ting]

Really? If I power down my phone but do not remove the battery it still communicates with towers? I find this hard to believe. iPhones and many others have "Airplane Mode" which turns off the radio to avoid interference with airplane communications.

Yep the gps stays on. I've read that they even can use the mics as a bug, while the phone is off or not on a call, I believe it was used to take down some mafia guys. edit: I guess disco biscuit already linked the article.

BTW an iphone or really any smart phone is a terrible choice for anyone on this site. Way too much data is stored in these things, to the point where iphone data retrieval is a hot new field in forensics. They can pull all sorts of information out of these phones that you didn't even know it was saving.

I recently read where a member on another site was taking photos of his outdoor grows with an iphone. The pictures automatically had gps location embedded in the exif data, so that anyone who viewed his photos online would have exact coordinates to his outdoor grow.

Apple had some sort of patent for a technology that would take pictures of anyone who used the iphone, record their voice and send it back to some sort of central database. The idea was the phone could automatically detect if it had been stolen, and presumably shut down service or wipe the os when someone else starts using it. Obviously there are all sorts of privacy problems with technologies like this, but even if they haven't implemented this particular function, it shows you what these phones are capable of.

That's why they call them smart phones, its a fucking computer the size of a cell phone, and you have very little expectation of privacy when using these devices.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If the court says we shouldn't expect any reasonable privacy from our private cellphones, there should be disclosure of some type on every device that has ability to spy.

 

[joe4444]

Yep the gps stays on. I've read that they even can use the mics as a bug, while the phone is off or not on a call, I believe it was used to take down some mafia guys. edit: I guess disco biscuit already linked the article.

BTW an iphone or really any smart phone is a terrible choice for anyone on this site. Way too much data is stored in these things, to the point where iphone data retrieval is a hot new field in forensics. They can pull all sorts of information out of these phones that you didn't even know it was saving.

I recently read where a member on another site was taking photos of his outdoor grows with an iphone. The pictures automatically had gps location embedded in the exif data, so that anyone who viewed his photos online would have exact coordinates to his outdoor grow.

Apple had some sort of patent for a technology that would take pictures of anyone who used the iphone, record their voice and send it back to some sort of central database. The idea was the phone could automatically detect if it had been stolen, and presumably shut down service or wipe the os when someone else starts using it. Obviously there are all sorts of privacy problems with technologies like this, but even if they haven't implemented this particular function, it shows you what these phones are capable of.

That's why they call them smart phones, its a fucking computer the size of a cell phone, and you have very little expectation of privacy when using these devices.

You can turn off the location feature (GPS) in EXIF on the iPhone. In fact, I'm pretty sure the first time you use the camera it asks you if you want to tag photos with GPS coordinates (I declined that shit!). Either way, it's always a good idea to convert photos taken with any camera in order to remove EXIF data. (I'm not sure if there is any kind of serial number included in that data, but it wouldn't surprise me considering it's just a few extra bytes.) You can also turn off the iPhone's GPS entirely...if you jailbreak.

I still have a very hard time believing my powered down iPhone is communicating via GPS. I'd love to see confirmation of these claims. I'm not calling bullshit. I'm just skeptical.

All that said, the typical iPhone user probably doesn't take any of these precautions. So unless you're somewhat tech savvy and paranoid (like me), chances are your iPhone is vulnerable in some way.

 

[joe4444]

I just remembered something. I read that iPhone users with MobileMe can locate their phone (via GPS) if they lose it. The caveat: if the battery dies or a thief turns off the phone, it doesn't work. So if what you're saying is true, then Apple is lying (and greatly limiting a big security feature) by not allowing MobileMe users to locate their lost phone. Of course, that wouldn't really surprise me as Apple is notorious for limiting their products' abilities. Still...I'm skeptical.

 

[Captain Ginyu]

Don't talk incriminating shit on the phone, & don't take it with you to places where you don't want big brother to know.