3 ms·
Not from the other side of a wide-area network, but if they are continuously in close proximity to you, or can effectively monitor everywhere (three letter agen
by kbolino 3y ago
Not from the other side of a wide-area network, but if they are continuously in close proximity to you, or can effectively monitor everywhere (three letter agency), then yes. Of course, there are other ways to track you.
- KenArrari 2y agoAh ok I had a police officer force me to unlock my phone and show him my IMEI once so that answers why.
- harshaxnim 3y agoCan you elaborate on what you meant by trackable when they're "continously in close proximity to you"?
- p_l 3y agoSnooping, or hijacking, the radio pathway between you and your network operator.
- aspenmayer 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher
- wiml 3y agoIf they can listen to the radio traffic between your phone and the cell tower, that is.
- lxgr 3y agoI think this is only true for older mobile networks. In 4G and 5G, I don't think the IMEI is part of any unencrypted radio message anymore. Even the IMSI is only used when absolutely necessary, i.e. for the initial attachment procedure when cold starting a device or entering a new routing area; after that, it's replaced by an alias called TMSI to make tracking phone users a bit harder. New Android versions will supposedly have a switch in their settings to show a warning every time the IMEI or IMSI is transmitted in plantext [1]. [1] https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/main:hardware/interfaces/radio/aidl/android/hardware/radio/network/IRadioNetwork.aidl;l=666?q=cellularidentifierdisclosed%20imsi https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/...