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Guess who's tracking you by cell phone?
ZDNet News ^ | 2/27/02 | Ben Charny

Posted on 03/01/2002 5:16:24 PM PST by truthandlife

The nation's cell phone service providers will soon know exactly where every one of their customers is, at all times, and privacy rights groups are asking what they plan to do with the information.

All U.S. carriers are under Federal Communications Commission orders to make it possible for police to locate cell phones calling 911, something police can't do now. Carriers plan to use the same systems to sell services like helping stranded motorists even if they don't know their location, or finding the closest restaurant.

Because people with cell phone generally always carry their phone with them, the FCC regulations give the thriving market for personal information something its never had a chance to get: the exact locations at all times of more than 140 million people.

"There are some things you don't mind other people knowing, but your location isn't one of them," said Gary Laden, a privacy program director for BBBOnline, a Better Business Bureau subsidiary.

Private details that become public knowledge every time people visit Web pages and leave information, every address that the U.S. government sells, or every ATM transaction that dutifully records the time are just some of the ways that technology has been tracking individuals. But knowing someone's location at all times adds a significant new twist to tracking information about people.

Sprint is already offering an Enhanced 911 (E911) system in Rhode Island and sells a pair of phones that work on the system. In a year, Verizon Wireless says nearly half of all new handsets activated will have this capability. The FCC expects 95 percent of the cell phones sold in the United States by 2005 will meet the FCC guidelines.

Neither AT&T Wireless nor Verizon Wireless offer any E911 or related services yet. But both say they do not sell the information they already collect from their subscribers, such as a home address used to send a monthly bill. And they don't plan to do anything different with the location information once they do offer those services.

"We already know where you live, but we haven't made that available to anyone," Verizon Wireless representative Nancy Stark said.

Travis Larson, a spokesman for the wireless trade group Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association said the worry isn't so much the carriers, but the independent companies that provide the commercial services.

"Not all companies in this space will be CTIA members," he said. "Then you have a group of businesses unregulated."

So far, backers of two consumer privacy initiatives say they've begun talks with carriers about what they plan to do with the information they collect.

On Wednesday, AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi said the company is the first U.S. carrier to have its privacy policies reviewed and approved by Truste, a coalition that approves online privacy policies, whose sponsors include AT&T Wireless, AOL Time Warner, Intel, Microsoft and others.

Truste and AT&T Wireless are also working together to create a uniform policy for what carriers should do with the information they collect. Blasi and a spokesman for Truste said they want carriers to tell subscribers that their location can be tracked, and what plans, if any, they have for the information.

Also Wednesday, supporters of a recently approved privacy standard known as P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences) say they've also begun a dialogue with wireless carriers.

Some versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer use P3P to automate the process of deciding if a Web site's privacy policies are good enough for a user. People can pre-load their Web browsers with preferences, such as whether they want a Web site to accept a browser's cookies filled with personal information. If the browser is directed toward a Web page, it'll seek out the privacy policies and determine if they match the preferred ones. If not, the Web page doesn't load.

Josh Freed, a spokesman for the Internet Education Foundation, said backers of P3P want to offer the same type of function to cell phone customers. "This way, every time there is an exchange of data, the phone alerts you if there is a conflict," he said.

The effort is very new, Freed and others warn, and is preceding even the existing technology.

"We have a blank page in front of us now," said J. Walter Hyer, AT&T Wireless chief privacy officer.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: privacylist
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To: truthandlife
--doesn't some of this new ultra tracking tech have to be built directly into the phone? If so, just use an older model phone and pop for new batteries once in awhile. Or use the throw away pre paid phones.
21 posted on 03/01/2002 6:25:40 PM PST by zog
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To: truthandlife
Simple solution. I'll cancel my service if this is made mandantory.
22 posted on 03/01/2002 6:26:46 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants
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To: scholar
Doesn't matter! You must take out the battery, or they can remotely activate your cellphone as a transmitter to track you by conventional RDF methods, and have done so for years.

Read "Killing Pablo" by Blackhawk Down author Mark Bowden. This is how American Army spooks found Pablo Escobar in 1993 in Medellin.

23 posted on 03/01/2002 6:30:36 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: watcher1
on the newer phones, if the battery is attached, it can be turned on for tracking purposes remotely. kewl for leos...
24 posted on 03/01/2002 6:32:15 PM PST by Robert_Paulson2
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To: WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
I'll be glad when they get it on my phone. My family or myself may need help someday and not be able to call for it. We don't have anything to hide.
25 posted on 03/01/2002 6:33:13 PM PST by Dubya
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To: zog,hollywood
Or use the throw away pre paid phones.

Bingo, but be careful at the point of sale. The phone's internal ID codes can be correlated to the store and time of sale and then to you, if due caution is not exercised.

(This comes up a lot in the plot of my novel, where some folks try to communicate without sharing Pablo's fate.)

26 posted on 03/01/2002 6:33:54 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: blam
I don't know the technical details, but I can't imagine how they would know where you were if the phone was turned off. When you turn it on, it starts to exchange signals with the carrier and tells you it is ready. Presumably they can at least tell which antenna you are closest to, and possibly they could tell more or less how far away from it you were if they installed equipment to precisely measure the time delays in the signal interchange.

I also leave mine off except when I am making a call, which is pretty seldom.

27 posted on 03/01/2002 6:34:05 PM PST by Cicero
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To: Cicero
OK, I see I have to retract this.
28 posted on 03/01/2002 6:35:48 PM PST by Cicero
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To: Robert_Paulson2,hollywood
Not only newer phones, any cell phones.

The tracking just has to be done by RDF, no problemo, after a rough triangulation is achieved based on the nearest cell towers.

29 posted on 03/01/2002 6:36:20 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: All
Must Read: "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden.

Keep in mind that was in 1993.......

30 posted on 03/01/2002 6:37:50 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
Now that I think about it a bit more, if you pushed the antenna on the cell phone down and wrapped it carefully in TIN FOIL, how would a signal get through to activate it?

Finally, a use for tin foil?

31 posted on 03/01/2002 6:38:13 PM PST by Cicero
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To: Travis McGee
Travis, My husband works in this industry.... he says he has never seen a cell site capable of this..... it may be possible and the equipment may be available..but the average cell site is a simple receiver/transmitter site and does not have this capability.
32 posted on 03/01/2002 6:38:13 PM PST by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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To: truthandlife
What's the hubub all about? "They" have known where we all are for years! Heat. Water. Telephone. Drivers license. Income Tax. Phone book. Heck, all you'd need to do to find anybody in the world is ask Publisher's Clearing House where they are!
33 posted on 03/01/2002 6:39:30 PM PST by babylonian
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To: Robert_Paulson2, TravisMcGee
if the battery is attached, it can be turned on for tracking purposes remotely.

You are 100% Sure of this? You KNOW this? Are you sure?

Please reply

34 posted on 03/01/2002 6:40:58 PM PST by watcher1
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To: truthandlife
Nobody is tracking me.
35 posted on 03/01/2002 6:42:36 PM PST by antaresequity
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To: Cicero,hollywood
Again, read "Killing Pablo".

If you have a cell phone with a battery in it, it can be activated remotely without a beep or light or click. At that point you have a handy electronic emitter in your pocket saying Cicero's unique digital code out to the world. Then it is simply a matter of having sensitive enough receivers listening for that unique signal to latch onto, after that RDF today takes seconds to fix your location.

Yes, burying your phone or wrapping it in lead will diminish or stop the emmissions. But to make it easier and more certain, yank out the battery if you absolutely don't want to be tracked.

Now this means nothing to us, we are not being tracked. It meant quite a lot to Pablo Escobar, who was.

36 posted on 03/01/2002 6:44:47 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: watcher1
Read "Killing Pablo" (Escobar) by Mark Bowden. It's how they nailed him. He was pretty surprised too. And very dead, all shot full of bullets playing roof tag at the very end.
37 posted on 03/01/2002 6:46:45 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
For a quick explanation of the technology used in E911, see this webpage. The cell towers use the same Time Difference of Arrival scheme as a GPS receiver uses with the satellites. A 3 tower fix is required. Since the exact LAT/LON of each tower is known, your precise LAT/LON can be derived from the 3 tower fix.
38 posted on 03/01/2002 6:47:47 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Cicero
You guys are too paranoid. I am an RF engineer for the nations largest wireless carrier. I have had instances in the past where I have had to provide information about the possible location of a person using a cell phone based on their call records. One was a murder case. Wireless already has the ability to identify your general location. The government has mandated that all the wireless carriers come up with a way to allow 911 calls to be located. That is it. It is simple enough to make it so that the phone only gives it's exact location during a 911 call. I expect that is what will happen once this becomes a big fuss. The 'Government' will not have access to your location all the time. At the very worst the wireless carriers will have the information. Not Big Brother. If you are worried, when you request a handset at the store, ask specifically for one that is not E911 compliant. Of course, don't come cryin' when you have a heart attack and the ambulance can't find you.
39 posted on 03/01/2002 6:49:13 PM PST by SoCal_Republican
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To: watcher1
Also, a more modern case: LEOs are able to retroactively trace David Westerfields movements by where he used his cell phone on his travels with poor Danielle Van Dam.

IOW, the "forensic history" of your calls remains long after you push "END".

40 posted on 03/01/2002 6:50:08 PM PST by Travis McGee
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