I do believe that you have the option to turn that feature off.
>> I do believe that you have the option to turn that feature off.
There’s more than one kind of tracking by cell phone.
There’s the GPS built into some cell phones. I don’t have that feature, so I don’t know for sure, but I bet you CAN turn that off.
Then, there is a form of tracking — much coarser resolution — that relies on records of which cell the phone is within. That you can’t turn off, unless you keep the cell phone itself turned off. In which case it’s not really much of a cell phone.
But as soon as you turn it on to get your messages, whammo! You’re associated with a cell, and they know (about) where you are.
You can turn off the GPS in the phone. But they don’t need that to track you.
In order for a cell phone to work its location must be constantly updated so the system knows what cell tower to use in order to connect to your phone. They use that information to track you, not the GPS.
As a matter of fact, by using triangulation of your signal from several cell towers they can pin your location down to within yards just by using relative signal strength alone.
The only way to be secure when carrying a cell phone is to remove the battery.
>>I do believe that you have the option to turn that feature off.<<
Sort of.
If your phone is on, it is constantly searching the closest tower. When the tower receives a ping, it logs it. It knows the time, the IMSI (your phones “fingerprint”), your phone number, etc. And the information is saved - for how long I don’t know.
If you drive from Seattle to Chicago and your phone is on the whole time, there is a record of where you (your phone, that is) were, when, on the entire route.
And because this information is historical, law enforcement can literally go back in time. Again, how far I don’t know, but I suspect it is at least 6 months.
Have to pull out the battery.
I think that even if your option is turned off, as long as your cell has power and can receive, that can be overridden.