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No. They can locate anyone's phone on demand. The services that do this can generate a likely street address from GPS or tower triangulated location. This is h
by kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
No. They can locate anyone's phone on demand. The services that do this can generate a likely street address from GPS or tower triangulated location.
This is how many criminals now get caught while on the run. It isn't magic police work but rather the personal tracking device everyone carries. Likewise some spree killers have been tracked down by geofencing phones known to be around all crime scenes and zeroing in on the one that shows up at all/most of them.
- soared 3y agoSource?
- xethos 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorvault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorvault is for Google, with the 3 linked sources being very fun reads.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agohttps://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/cell-phone-data-from-lori-vallows-brother-alex-cox-helped-authorities-find-kids-remains https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/cell-phone-data-from-lori-...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hollerith 3y agoYour "on demand" makes it read like they don't need to get a warrant whereas your link describes a missing-children investigation that had already made the national news, i.e., a situation in which getting a warrant would be very easy.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoI've had it used on me personally without a warrant. There are no deep controls on this tech. You just have to know someone who can do a favor.
- hollerith 3y agoWell, sure, but more often than not, when someone on HN gives a URL to support some point, the URL ends up not actually supporting the point. I'm curious why people do that. Why did you do it?
- mcpackieh 3y agoA warrant can be "on demand" within minutes if you can get a judge to pick up his phone.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- koonsolo 3y agoCell phones are only connected to 1 tower afaik. So no triangulation is possible, only the tower they are connected to, which is very broad.
- mcpackieh 3y agoThat's not accurate; they get angle and time (distance) from the tower. It's a hell of a lot more precise than a circle somewhere around the tower. https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2020/12/5g-positioning--what-you-need-to-know https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2020/12/5g-positioning--wha...
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoOther towers can still passively track your signal. You also have to communicate with more than one tower during handoff between cells. This is a capability mandated by E911. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1: To locate a mobile telephone geographically, there are two general approaches. One is to use some form of radiolocation from the cellular network; the other is to use a Global Positioning System receiver built into the phone itself. Both approaches are described by the Radio resource location services protocol (LCS protocol).
- justsomehnguy 3y agoLook at the tower. It would have at least 3 antennas giving at least a 120 degree segment. As soon as a phone connects to another one you would have a line (or more like an ellipsoid) between the two towers. Even if the phone just lies on the desk it could switch towers, eg if the current one has too many clients, or the signal quality is pretty equal between them. NB I worked in a such place, my phone would be in low 40-50% at the end of the work day, despite being able to endure two days easily if I would be at some other place.
- fomine3 3y agoCarrier aggregation is a thing since LTE-Advanced