4 ms·

There’s no public one. But, data brokers have this info, and share it. Internally, a lot of companies can do this. So, it’s not far-fetched.

by afpx 4y ago

asveikau 4y ago
Doing that for an open-ended phone number anywhere in the world seems like somebody's full time job to maintain. You'd probably need some database that ties together disparate data sources. Confidence in accuracy probably varies. The best source to use probably also changes. I feel like somebody googling for a quick code snippet to do that in a single POST request should be aware of how challenging the problem space is. That would be a hint for joe random developer that they've come up with a bad idea and should work on something else. But I probably expect too much.
dTal 4y ago
Are you saying it's routine for cell phone companies to sell live fine location data to the highest bidder? Can I get a source on that? Horrifying if true, enough to make me switch back to landlines.
- fy20 4y ago
  Back in 2008 I was working with a company in the UK that had an API to do this with O2. It only provided a rough area of where the user was, as it was based on which (single) cell tower the user was connected to. I'd imagine today MIMO data is good enough to triangulate a very accurate (metres) position.
  - retconekt 4y ago
    5G MIMO is sub millimetre 3D accurate to microsecond timing given a good tower time reference.
- aftbit 4y ago
  I've heard anecdotes about this for a while. Here are a few: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile https://www.vice.com/en/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunte... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/t-mobile-sprint-and-att-still-selling-your-location-data-report-says/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/t-mobile-sprint-... https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214667/att-t-mobile-sprint-location-tracking-data-bounty-hunters https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214667/att-t-mobile-spri...
  - Tostino 4y ago
    Here is a Last Week Tonight piece on the topic in addition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA

There’s no public one. But, data brokers have this info, and share it. Internally, a lot of companies can do this. So, it’s not far-fetched.

by afpx 4y ago

There’s no public one. But, data brokers have this info, and share it. Internally, a lot of companies can do this. So, it’s not far-fetched.

asveikau 4y ago

Doing that for an open-ended phone number anywhere in the world seems like somebody's full time job to maintain. You'd probably need some database that ties together disparate data sources. Confidence in accuracy probably varies. The best source to use probably also changes. I feel like somebody googling for a quick code snippet to do that in a single POST request should be aware of how challenging the problem space is. That would be a hint for joe random developer that they've come up with a bad idea and should work on something else. But I probably expect too much.

dTal 4y ago

Are you saying it's routine for cell phone companies to sell live fine location data to the highest bidder? Can I get a source on that? Horrifying if true, enough to make me switch back to landlines.

fy20 4y ago
Back in 2008 I was working with a company in the UK that had an API to do this with O2. It only provided a rough area of where the user was, as it was based on which (single) cell tower the user was connected to. I'd imagine today MIMO data is good enough to triangulate a very accurate (metres) position.
- retconekt 4y ago
  5G MIMO is sub millimetre 3D accurate to microsecond timing given a good tower time reference.
aftbit 4y ago
I've heard anecdotes about this for a while. Here are a few: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile https://www.vice.com/en/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunte... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/t-mobile-sprint-and-att-still-selling-your-location-data-report-says/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/t-mobile-sprint-... https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214667/att-t-mobile-sprint-location-tracking-data-bounty-hunters https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214667/att-t-mobile-spri...
- Tostino 4y ago
  Here is a Last Week Tonight piece on the topic in addition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA