Cell Phones: Tracking Devices That Happen To Make Calls – Slashdot

An article in the New York Times recently proposed that we rename “cell phones” to “trackers” in order to highlight the main/actual functionality of these devices. Sounds scary? Sounds strange for a mainstream media publication to be taking such a pro-privacy story? Both correct, read on…

Here are some interesting/scary quotes from the Slashdot discussion of the news:

“cell phones are effectively robots that use us for mobility”

“You don’t have to make a call to be triangulated.”

“using DTOA from a single sectored antenna is enough to place your location in a pretty narrow arc, and with two antennae you can be located within 30 feet or closer even in very crappy conditions. The phone plus the network is a tracking system whether there’s any tracking-specific hardware in the phone.”

“The cellular network has to know where you are …. to within 36 feet. … additionally, last I recall this information is saved for a period of 7 years”

“It has been mandated by the FCC since 2001 that every cell phone has to be tracked.”

“People often forget that the phone is an autonomous device that can do things on it’s own and without showing any of that activity on it’s UI side. They only see it do things when they push buttons, so they assume that pushing buttons is a required part for the phone to be able to do things.”

“Why should you be worrie about people knowing your location? Ask the kid in Long Island, NY, who, after leaving a party one night, was ‘tracked’ by thugs who used easily purchased ‘tracking apps’. He was shot and killed on a highway miles away from that party. All those thugs had to do to track him was to enter his phone into a $30 app.”

Via:

Cell Phones: Tracking Devices That Happen To Make Calls – Slashdot.