Technology is pretty cool

[JGalt]

My wife was chosen to go to a meeting of the Global Methodist Church that took place in Indiana today. She went together with some other church folks in a van, and they're on their way back tonight. I have to meet them to pick her up at a town that's about an hour away from here.

I found out that I can track her progress through her cell phone, by simply logging into her Google account and using Google's "Find My Device" website..

Easy Ways to Ping a Phone to Find Its Location – Is It Legal?

It shows the location of her phone with either a little phone symbol or a larger circle, depending on the proximity of cellular towers. She's currently on I94 heading west, out of Milwaukee. When she gets closer to Johnson Creek, I'll leave to go pick her up.

Of course, that also mean anyone could pretty much track you anywhere, which could be a privacy issue.

 

[toobfreak]

My wife was chosen to go to a meeting of the Global Methodist Church that took place in Indiana today.

Indiana is an awesome state.

I found out that I can track her progress through her cell phone, by simply logging into her Google account and using Google's "Find My Device" website.

Yep. Even if off (so long as the battery is in) the network is always pinging your phone so that if it gets a call for you, it knows which cell tower to send it too! Like your caller ID, both are just overhead the network uses, which means, yes, anyone could track you including the government and they do.

 

[airplanemechanic]

You do know that a notification comes on her phone letting her know she's being tracked, right? And the size of the circle has nothing to do with proximity to cell towers. It doesn't use cell towers for location, it's pulling it off of your wife's phones GPS. So the size of the circle corresponds with the quality of the GPS signal the phone is receiving. A better signal means more accurate location info so a smaller circle. You can also use your mouse wheel to zoom in and you'll see a much more accurate and smaller circle showing where she is.

I have the "locate my device" feature as a "hotlink" on my browser so if I lose my phone or it's stolen, I can immediately track it and lock it. I've used it a few times when I misplaced it around the house.

What the hell cell service does she have? What the hell is "card 1?" And get her a real phone. The J3 pop is like 7 years old. That's a POS. Get her something nicer.

 

[JGalt]

Indiana is an awesome state.


Yep. Even if off (so long as the battery is in) the network is always pinging your phone so that if it gets a call for you, it knows which cell tower to send it too! Like your caller ID, both are just overhead the network uses, which means, yes, anyone could track you including the government and they do.

Thanks. I wasn't sure, but I thought it would work with the phone shut off too.

 

[JGalt]

You do know that a notification comes on her phone letting her know she's being tracked, right? And the size of the circle has nothing to do with proximity to cell towers. It doesn't use cell towers for location, it's pulling it off of your wife's phones GPS. So the size of the circle corresponds with the quality of the GPS signal the phone is receiving. A better signal means more accurate location info so a smaller circle. You can also use your mouse wheel to zoom in and you'll see a much more accurate and smaller circle showing where she is.

I have the "locate my device" feature as a "hotlink" on my browser so if I lose my phone or it's stolen, I can immediately track it and lock it. I've used it a few times when I misplaced it around the house.

What the hell cell service does she have? What the hell is "card 1?" And get her a real phone. The J3 pop is like 7 years old. That's a POS. Get her something nicer.

We're just two old cheap people. They're Trac Phones too, so we just pay as we go.

Hell, I don't even turn my phone on unless I leave the house because we have a landline.

 

[airplanemechanic]

We're just two old cheap people. They're Trac Phones too, so we just pay as we go.

Hell, I don't even turn my phone on unless I leave the house because we have a landline.

You cannot track her phone if it's off. That person saying that is lying. Perhaps the police can with a warrant, but not you. Try it. Turn her phone off and then drive to the grocery store. The phone will show still at your house. All it will show is the last location before being turned off.

Can a phone be tracked if it’s turned off?​

A phone that is turned off is difficult to track because it stops sending signals to cell towers. However, the service provider or internet provider can show the last location once it’s switched back on.

Can My Phone Be Tracked If Location Services Are Off? | McAfee

Your smartphone comes with built-in location services, which are useful if you lose it. But can your phone be tracked if location services are switched off?

www.mcafee.com

 

[toobfreak]

Thanks. I wasn't sure, but I thought it would work with the phone shut off too.

Yep. Whether landline or cellphone, even your home phone switch hook, if it is on hook (available) or off hook (busy), that state is relayed back to the central office switch when you get a phone call. As soon as the switch gets a request from a subscriber to call you, the first thing it does is poll (ping) your home phone (or cellular) to see what state you are in. If you are available (on hook, or cell phone turned "on"), it sends a ringing tone back through the toll switch to the caller to let them know the call is going through while the local switch on your end sends a ring tone through to you.

So long as the battery is in your cellphone, part of it is in contact enough with the network to know who you are and what state you are in (and by knowing the cell tower) WHERE you are (actually, your phone is generally in contact with up to the three nearest or strongest signal towers, at least two hopefully, so that by time domain triangulation, the network can estimate to within 10-30 feet about where you are physically, then sends the call through to whichever tower is closest to you.

And you can bet your sweet booty that the government collects and keeps all of that to determine travel, usage and other patterns.

Short of taking the battery out of your cellphone (never made easy to do), the only other way to stop that is to buy one of those Faraday cage bags they make which you can slip your phone into, which then blocks the radio signals from going out or coming in much like your microwave oven door window in your kitchen blocks the microwaves from radiating through out into the room.

GoDark® Faraday Bags for Phones

Stop phone tracking & shield your phone from 5G, GPS, EMF, and EMP (MIL-STD-188-125-2) with our military-grade Faraday bags. Lab-tested & durable. Shop now.

godarkbags.com

 

[dudmuck]

My wife was chosen to go to a meeting of the Global Methodist Church that took place in Indiana today. She went together with some other church folks in a van, and they're on their way back tonight. I have to meet them to pick her up at a town that's about an hour away from here.

I found out that I can track her progress through her cell phone, by simply logging into her Google account and using Google's "Find My Device" website..

Easy Ways to Ping a Phone to Find Its Location – Is It Legal?

It shows the location of her phone with either a little phone symbol or a larger circle, depending on the proximity of cellular towers. She's currently on I94 heading west, out of Milwaukee. When she gets closer to Johnson Creek, I'll leave to go pick her up.

View attachment 758386


Of course, that also mean anyone could pretty much track you anywhere, which could be a privacy issue.

that "find my device" is strictly a google service, letting you locate devices you own. When i tried it, a notification popped up on the phone that this occurred.

But the ping thing you mentioned is different. Its just doing and IP address geo-location, which is completely different, and i doubt that works over a cellphone network.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Yep. Whether landline or cellphone, even your home phone switch hook, if it is on hook (available) or off hook (busy), that state is relayed back to the central office switch when you get a phone call. As soon as the switch gets a request from a subscriber to call you, the first thing it does is poll (ping) your home phone (or cellular) to see what state you are in. If you are available (on hook, or cell phone turned "on"), it sends a ringing tone back through the toll switch to the caller to let them know the call is going through while the local switch on your end sends a ring tone through to you.

So long as the battery is in your cellphone, part of it is in contact enough with the network to know who you are and what state you are in (and by knowing the cell tower) WHERE you are (actually, your phone is generally in contact with up to the three nearest or strongest signal towers, at least two hopefully, so that by time domain triangulation, the network can estimate to within 10-30 feet about where you are physically, then sends the call through to whichever tower is closest to you.

And you can bet your sweet booty that the government collects and keeps all of that to determine travel, usage and other patterns.

Short of taking the battery out of your cellphone (never made easy to do), the only other way to stop that is to buy one of those Faraday cage bags they make which you can slip your phone into, which then blocks the radio signals from going out or coming in much like your microwave oven door window in your kitchen blocks the microwaves from radiating through out into the room.

GoDark® Faraday Bags for Phones

Stop phone tracking & shield your phone from 5G, GPS, EMF, and EMP (MIL-STD-188-125-2) with our military-grade Faraday bags. Lab-tested & durable. Shop now.

godarkbags.com

You are wrong. Phones that are off do not relay their locations to the towers.

See post 6.

Can My Phone Be Tracked If Location Services Are Off? | McAfee

Your smartphone comes with built-in location services, which are useful if you lose it. But can your phone be tracked if location services are switched off?

www.mcafee.com

Faraday bags are silly. Just turn the phone off. If you want to kill a cell phones signal just put it in the microwave. DON'T TURN THE MICROWAVE ON. The microwave is a huge faraday cage. Your signal will drop to 0 in there.

Can Your Android Phone Be Tracked When It’s Turned Off?

Does powering down your Android phone mean that it can no longer be tracked? Here's what you need to know.

www.makeuseof.com

"When you turn your phone off, you're temporarily deactivating all of its functions, including wireless communication. By cutting this off, your phone cannot be tracked via cell tower triangulation or GPS. The only location that can be discerned using these methods is that which was last shown before the device was turned off.

So, the general answer is no, your phone cannot be tracked when switched off. "

 

[james bond]

Indiana is an awesome state.


Yep. Even if off (so long as the battery is in) the network is always pinging your phone so that if it gets a call for you, it knows which cell tower to send it too! Like your caller ID, both are just overhead the network uses, which means, yes, anyone could track you including the government and they do.

Yep and you may have agreed to it with a website provider. I think if you AGREE to their cookies, then you may have inadvertently agreed to be tracked forever. This is why they always ask you whether to accept their cookies or not. You have to REJECT their cookies every time you visit, but once you agree, it is FOREVER. And these websites or companies that do it sell their data to businesses and corporations who are interested in where you shop, eat, hang out at, etc.

It's a privacy issue and to an extent a security issue, but I haven't heard anyone expose anything with these shenanigans.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Yep and you may have agreed to it with a website provider. I think if you AGREE to their cookies, then you may have inadvertently agreed to be tracked forever. This is why they always ask you whether to accept their cookies or not. You have to REJECT their cookies every time you visit, but once you agree, it is FOREVER. And these websites or companies that do it sell their data to businesses and corporations who are interested in where you shop, eat, hang out at, etc.

It's a privacy issue and to an extent a security issue, but I haven't heard anyone expose anything with these shenanigans.

This IS NOT TRUE!!! A phone that is off CANNOT BE TRACKED!!!! Please quit spreading disinformation!!!!! See post 6 AND POST 9!!

Tracking cookies don't track your location, they track your BROWSING HISTORY so you can receive ads that correspond more with things you buy and places you go online. If you want to be tracked where you physically go, then you have to click "allow" like 5 times for all these different things. It's not going to happen without your knowledge. And NONE of this happens if the phone is off.

God the disinformation spread on the internet is rampant.

 

[toobfreak]

that "find my device" is strictly a google service, letting you locate devices you own. When i tried it, a notification popped up on the phone that this occurred.
But the ping thing you mentioned is different. Its just doing and IP address geo-location, which is completely different, and i doubt that works over a cellphone network.

Of course not, not for YOU. They are not going to give YOU an app to spy on others, but Google can, and Google is right in cahoots with the government which indeed wants the ability to track you and everyone else, likely as part of the Patriot act, you know, for the good of the country and the safety of the little children.

Why do you think they want to invent and build things like MAGA up into a "threat?" They need something to justify their spying.

 

[toobfreak]

You are wrong. Phones that are off do not relay their locations to the towers.
See post 6.

Can My Phone Be Tracked If Location Services Are Off? | McAfee

Your smartphone comes with built-in location services, which are useful if you lose it. But can your phone be tracked if location services are switched off?

www.mcafee.com

Look, if you want to believe that, go ahead. You are talking to a person who used to build, work on and maintain the telecom network. That crap you are referring to is only designed to BLOCK CONSUMER SNOOPING. It does NOT stop the network itself from following you nor the government, trust me.

Faraday bags are silly.

No they are not. Short of removing the battery, they are the one sure way of taking your cellular phone truly "off the grid."

If you want to kill a cell phones signal just put it in the microwave.

That might actually work, but then, who cares about blocking the signal when you are HOME???

So, the general answer is no, your phone cannot be tracked when switched off. "

Better go back to school, or stick to airplanes, you don't know what you're talking about. Good way to prove it is turn your phone off and leave it sit around and watch the battery slowly go down anyway despite not being used! What is it doing???

 

[airplanemechanic]

Look, if you want to believe that, go ahead. You are talking to a person who used to build, work on and maintain the telecom network. That crap you are referring to is only designed to BLOCK CONSUMER SNOOPING. It does NOT stop the network itself from following you nor the government, trust me.


No they are not. Short of removing the battery, they are the one sure way of taking your cellular phone truly "off the grid."


That might actually work, but then, who cares about blocking the signal when you are HOME???


Better go back to school, or stick to airplanes, you don't know what you're talking about. Good way to prove it is turn your phone off and leave it sit around and watch the battery slowly go down anyway despite not being used! What is it doing???

Ok good. Show me proof that a cell phone that is off can be tracked. All you have is "believe me." Well, I don't.

"There have been talks of certain authorities still being able to track your phone when turned off. For example, various reports have come out over the years claiming that the NSA (National Security Agency) can track a turned-off device. For example, Slate published a piece in 2013 discussing the NSA's alleged tracking of phones, as briefly mentioned in a Washington Post story.

In the same piece, Slate mentioned that in 2006, it was reported that the FBI had "deployed spyware to infect suspects’ mobile phones and record data even when they were turned off". A CNET post was referred to here as the source. "

So even the NSA saying they can track phones when off was biased because it was phones that they had infected with spyware. Not a normal average user phone.

 

[toobfreak]

This IS NOT TRUE!!! A phone that is off CANNOT BE TRACKED!!!! Please quit spreading disinformation!!!!! See post 6 AND POST 9!!

Look, dude, I'm not a consumer looking up crap on the web like you, I used to DESIGN EQUIPMENT for the telecom network. I have an award on the wall beside me for global telecom and two prototype SLC2000 cards in a drawer beside me. Your links to McAfee are written by consumers FOR consumers, maybe even with government approval. It even said in your own article that LEO and gov are exceptions to the rule and that "For any regular individual or company, tracking your location with your phone turned off would be an extremely difficult task, so you likely don't need to worry too much about apps" I've tried to give you the facts. I'm not talking about some stupid app you can buy. And I've worked on everything from token ring, SS7, and OC48/96, to D4, SLC 5, 96, 2000 channel bank, Nortel, Lucent, Siemens, AT&T switches and much more. Hell, I even went to Bell Laboratories once in Jersey for special training.

God the disinformation spread on the internet is rampant.

Starting with you. You are an example of how dangerous a little knowledge can be. Next time ask yourself how police so often track down criminals by cellphone location if all the crook has to do is turn his phone off to evade detection?

 

[toobfreak]

Ok good. Show me proof that a cell phone that is off can be tracked. All you have is "believe me." Well, I don't.

Good. Don't. I like you ignorant.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Lack of proof of anything other than "believe me" tells me you're full of shit.

And I've been a radio operator who has built radios for 20 years All a cell phone is is a radio with a GPS attached. You turn it off, it can't be tracked. You can't provide me with ANY proof otherwise. I've provided multiple sources saying I'm right.

So I'll say I am right and you're full of shit.

Thanks for playing.

 

[toobfreak]

Lack of proof of anything other than "believe me" tells me you're full of shit.

What would you like, asshole, a signed letter from the government attesting to this from Edward Snowden? As if I give a flying crap WHAT you think!

And I've been a radio operator who has built radios for 20 years

And good for you, Dewdrop. I've built radios, I've designed radios, I've designed detectors, I even make my own stereo gear. So fucking what. If you think a cellphone is nothing more than a "radio," you are only proving yourself to be an even bigger jerk! Say, you wouldn't be a sock for Admiral Tory, would you? He's an expert too because he used to operate and service radars in WWII.

You can't provide me with ANY proof otherwise.

Just decades of experience and training in the industry, but I wouldn't give you anything if you begged me.

I've provided multiple sources saying I'm right.

Actually, shithead, as already pointed out, your own linked consumer internet sources PROVED YOU WRONG. Apparently you can't even fucking read your own crap.

HEADS UP: Want me to link you to a web article saying that Biden is also the best and most transparent president in history!

I mean, apparently you're such an ass, you'll believe everything you read off the net!!!

Whadda dweeb.

 

[JGalt]

Of course not, not for YOU. They are not going to give YOU an app to spy on others, but Google can, and Google is right in cahoots with the government which indeed wants the ability to track you and everyone else, likely as part of the Patriot act, you know, for the good of the country and the safety of the little children.

Why do you think they want to invent and build things like MAGA up into a "threat?" They need something to justify their spying.

I've noticed that. I can log into Google and view a map which tracks everywhere my phone has been, on any particular day.

 

[toobfreak]

Lack of proof of anything other than "believe me" tells me you're full of shit.

Look Butterbean, so your "proof" is that you found an article on the internet where everything is suspect and replete with fake news from a company that provides AV for computers making claims with no stated basis of fact over someone telling you they have worked on the inside of the telecom design industry?

Tell me, Buzzbomb, do you know what Common Channel Signaling is? SS7? Ever even HEAR of SS7 before? Or Lucent 5ESS, 1A or 1E switches? Want me to post a picture of that award or those prototype boards I mentioned?

You can't be faulted for not ever hearing about such stuff as you'll find little on the web about them and couldn't be expected to have even heard about such stuff unless you had at least WORKED in the industry, which you obvious haven't. Here, wanna take a guess what these two pictures are here?

How much you want to bet that you are reading this post through something like both of these things right now? And no, you can't get pictures like this off the web. Don't believe me either? Try.

Oh and about building radios, you could go to Radio Shack and buy a crystal radio kit! Attach it to a screw on the wall and pick up radio stations! Proves absolutely nothing. All you really need for a radio receiver is a circuit tuned to the frequency of the carrier wave and a detector which can strip the audio off the carrier which can be as simple as a slope detector.