[syadasti]

Now you too can enjoy one of the tools the Bush Administration illegally uses on American Citizens - cell phone tracking! Unfortunately, these services require legal owner permission without government authority or hacker skillz

Forget those piddly wiretaps. The next frontier in warrant-free surveillance is upon us, and it's open to everyone. A UK service called World Tracker apparently uses cell tower data (or GPS in newer phones) to track the location of just about any GSM cellphone. Just enter the number you want to track into the service's handy Google Maps-based interface, and you'll be able to zoom in on the device's location, with accuracy somewhere between 50 and 500 meters. The first time you try to track a phone, a text message is sent to the owner, who must reply in order to enable tracking (we'll leave it to you to figure out how to work around this if you need to track a spouse, kid or employee). The service is currently compatible with O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, and has plans to expand to other markets including Germany, Spain, Norway and the US. If, that is, privacy advocates don't shut it down first.

Background information on cellphone tracking:

Can my location be tracked using my cell phone?

Increasingly, the answer is yes. In the past, your general location could be verified by looking at your phone records to determine which tower was used to connect your call. Now, your location can often be pinpointed in real time if your phone is turned on. Most current-model phones now include Global Positioning System (GPS) chips, which can determine your coordinates by connecting to satellites. It is likely that the trend of including location-tracking components will continue as cell phone manufacturers comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Enhanced 911 (E911) rule.

The FCC's E911 initiative requires cell phone carriers to be able to pinpoint their customers' location within 100 meters, so emergency responders can reach them in a crisis. However, phones with GPS chips can actually find you within a few feet. Ninety-five percent of cell phones must be E911 compliant by the end of 2005. Although several phone carriers have asked for extensions, in the future nearly all cell phones will have location-tracking features.

Although the impetus behind location-based tracking was public safety, many companies are exploring commercial opportunities as well. Several companies now offer non-emergency tracking for a monthly fee (about $15-25).

One of the newest commercial forms of non-emergency tracking is aimed at parents. In the next year, several companies are expected to pitch monitoring services to parents. These services would allow parents to monitor their child's location by tracking their cell phone. A parent would be able to turn on their computer and locate their child -- and even watch as the child travels from place to place. In addition to tracking the location, these monitoring services could send text messages to children who travel too far from parent-approved locations. Text messages may also be used to alert parents if a stranger or hacker attempts to use the service to locate their child.

Groups of friends are also expected to be able to sign-up for location-based tracking services in the future. Companies, seeking to capitalize on popular computer social networks, such as Friendster and MySpace, would allow friends to track the location of each other. The service would likely work similarly to the social networks on the internet, where one friend would send a message to another asking them to authorize the location tracking. Once the pair of friends were linked, each person could send restaurant and movie reviews or even weather reports depending on the location of their friend.

Tracking by GPS can be limited in two ways. Its use can be limited when the cell phone user is indoors. In addition, many GPS-equipped phones have two settings: 911-only or location-on. You should examine your phone and select the appropriate setting for your personal needs.

The privacy policies of commercial location-tracking companies usually restrict their services to either the actual owner of the cell phone, the parent of the cell phone user or employer-owned phones. Please be aware that if you are using a phone or vehicle provided by your employer, under the current law your employer can use GPS to monitor you during work hours. For more information on employer monitoring see our Fact Sheet 7 available at www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm.

 

[N8 v2.0]

:crickets:

 

[kidwoo]

:crickets:

Yeah but naughty crickets