Talk:Mobile phone tracking
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[edit] Legal everywhere?
I remember hearing about this technology being controversial but allowed in the UK. Is this allowed in all countries, in most, or just in the UK? Does anyone else have information about it being allowed or disallowed in a particular country? Gronky 17:36, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] phone on or off too?
Some, such as Richard Stallman, say that phones don't have to be on. Just having the battery in suffices[1]. The first line of this article currently says that phones have to be on. Can someone comment on which is correct? Gronky 11:36, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
stallman talks alot of crap but basically it depends on if the phone has been alterd, with modified software/firmware anything is possible! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.45.210.78 (talk) 18:28, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
- No, a phone that is physically off (no juice) cannot transmit anything, no matter what software is installed. But the "off button" doesn't turn a cellphone physically off, it's just a standby mode with or without maintaining connection to the network. If a cellphone can sound an alarm when it's "off", it isn't really off. Some of them also have reserve batteries.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.162.12.26 (talk) 02:53, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] How it works?
Is it done by triangular measurement of towers, 3 towers needed? Three towers in a triangle, a cellphone somewhere in between, measure which is closer to the tower... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Frap (talk • contribs) 01:18, 23 June 2007
- Basically yes (triangulation) plus on a tower there is often not 1 antenna per network, but 3 of them (each covering 120°), so this already gives a hint to the general direction.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.162.12.26 (talk) 02:57, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Doing the merge
In September 2007, a merge was proposed of this article with GSM localisation and Positioning (telecommunications) (note that the latter has a more general name but the article content is just about mobile phone tracking). That proposal had three people in favour and no one opposing it, but no one actually did the merge. Now someone new has re-proposed this merge. This time, I'm just going to go ahead and do a rough merge of the articles rather than waiting for someone else. --Gronky (talk) 13:14, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
- Go ahead - I'm just adding my name. --Matt Lewis (talk) 12:39, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Also by non-phone companies
There was an interesting story on Slashdot today about a shopping centre doing it's own GSM tracking.[2]
The article provided two links that might be good sources for references for a new section in this article:
