Privacy Issues: Cell Phones, OnStar and now...

[DougCxx]

...EZ-Pass.
----------------
In the past stories have come to light on the availability of tracking people by their cellphones (even when not in use--currently this service is apparently only available in UK) and a recent story of the ability of the FBI to use a vehicle's OnStar system for remote monitoring of a vehicle's location and monitor the sounds inside it. -I do not have the links right off, but the cellphone story appeared on the Register's site, and the OnStar story appeard on Slashdot recently.
And now this:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031211/D7VC2L2O0.html
[excerpted]

"BALTIMORE (AP) - When Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna's sedan cruised through a toll booth the night he was killed, his E-ZPass card automatically billed him. More importantly, it left an electronic record of his travels for police investigating the crime.

Millions of drivers now use electronic toll systems to pay for tolls without digging out cash, and investigators are increasingly using the electronic record they create as a crime fighting tool.

The New York Thruway System has received 128 subpoenas from investigators since 1998, and has turned over records in response to 61 of them, said Terry O'Brien, a spokesman for the thruway system.

The thruway system has issued electronic cards for use in 5.1 million vehicles, so the number of records subpoenaed is a small percentage. But experts predict the records will increasingly find their way into both criminal and civil cases."

[full article continues further..........]
------------------------------

I tend to believe that US citizens will see more and more things like this--ways of "monitoring" that are not really publicized as such, but nonehteless used for that purpose. Much of it may be avoidable if one is aware, however. Are there any websites actively following this subject?
I doubt it would warrant a new forum here, but it would seem to be of some concern to gun owners, they being what is in many places a politically-unattractive special-interest group....
~

 

[another okie]

"as a crime fighting tool."

Hardly. It might be a crime-solving tool, but it seems very unlikely to prevent any crimes.

 

[Standing Wolf]

It might be a crime-solving tool, but it seems very unlikely to prevent any crimes.

Well said.

 

[striker3]

I know that on my Sprint Sanyo cell phone it has a tracking device. The feature can be turned off but in the manual it states that it can still be tracked by law enforcment even when it is off.

 

[foghornl]

Have no cars with "on-star" or brand equivalent, cell-fone is an older anolog model, with battery pulled out when not in use.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Stop and think for a minute...

Every time you post a message to this site, or visit any other site, you're leaving a tracable electronic record.

Anonymizers?

Those can be burned through in relatively short order.

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

Originally posted by Striker 3 :

my Sprint Sanyo cell phone it has a tracking device

Model # ????? Does it happen to be SCP 5150 ?

 

[clubsoda22]

I think there will soon be a big black market in GPS jammers.

 

[AZ Jeff]

foghornl wrote:

"cell-fone is an older anolog model, with battery pulled out when not in use."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Whether the cellphone is analog or digital makes no difference in the ability of the cellular system to track the location of the phone. Analog models possess no greater anonymity.

Pulling the battery out is unnecessary. When the power is "off" on the phone, the signaling channel in the phone is OFF. The cellular network tracks phone location by "talking" to the portable phone on the signalling channel. When the signalling channel is "off", the system does not know the portable's whereabouts. Pulling the battery out does nothing further than powering down the phone would do. Thus, added step with the battery is unnecessary, unless you habitually accidentally turn your phone "ON".

 

[foghornl]

Have left cel-fone on, and had no battery power when really needed. So, I yank the battery when not required.

 

[striker3]

My cell phone is a Sanyo SCP-6400
It was also true on an old Samsung SPH-A460 phone I had.

 

[Quartus]

Oh, when you go through an electronic toll booth with a transponder your location is recorded?


DUH!






Now, about those cellphones... Time to put my urban legend busting hat on.


For starters, let me state my qualifications to talk about this:

20 years in the cellular phone industry. Currently a senior engineer with an international consulting firm. We do work for people like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc. All of the big ones and most of the small ones, internationally and domestically. One of the projects I've worked on was E-911 stuff for Verizon. I've been asked to write a magazine article on location based services for cell phones, but declined 'cause I just don't have time.


So, here goes ...

No, your phone is not tracked when it's off, and, as AZ Jeff stated, taking the battery off doesn't make you any more anonymous. Jeff has been doing some reading, it seems, but hasn't got all the pieces. (forget anything you read on howstuffworks.com - it's full of errors)


Phones are located (not "TRACKED") by various methods. These can be divided into two camps - GPS assisted and triangulation.

GPS assisted methods rely on the phone having a GPS receiver built into the phone. When you place a call (and ONLY when you first place a call) the phone transmits a GPS fix to the network along with it's own ID and the number you are dialing. This fix is not as accurate as a standard handheld GPS would give (for a number of reasons) but it's not bad. In my experience, GPS assisted location usually gives a "confidence index" of less than 50 meters. The lowest I've personally seen was 11 meters. That confidence index is basically saying that we are 90% sure that the location given is accurate within a XX meter radius. RADIUS.

If your phone does not have a GPS receiver built in, you are left with location by triangulation. That includes all old analog phones. (New phones that have digital as well as analog capability may have a GPS receiver. All new phones will soon - ah fergits the date.)


So how does triangulation work? Well, if you have known point, and you know the distance and direction to an unknown point, you can calculate the location of the unknown point. Simple enough. What if you don't know the direction, but only the distance? Well, you know the unknown point lies somewhere along a circle, right? It's 1 mile from me in SOME direction, so if I draw a circle centered on me with a one mile radius, the unknown location is on that circle. Now if I have a 2nd known point and a distance from that point, I've got two circles that intersect. Where they intersect is the unknown point's location. Ooops. THey intersect at two places! No problem - if I have a THIRD known point and a distance, I get ONE intersection where all three come together. That's my unknown location. (If I have direction but not distance, I can do the same thing. Both methods are used in cellular phone location. Some operators choose one, some choose the other. Some choose hybrid systems.)


With cell phones, the network gets equipped with some new hardware which takes those distance readings. There are various methods used for this, but the basic idea is the same. So IF the operator knows where his cell sites are (which they do in theory, but the accuracy is often abyssmal) and IF your call can be seen by more than one cell site, then he can crunch all this data and get a location.

How accurate is it? In my experience, non-GPS assisted calls generate location fixes with a confidence index typically over 1000 meters, and usually more like 1300 to 1500 meters. In a rural area, add 1000 meters. Now that's on Verizon's network, and they have spent the money to do this as well as it can be done. Every site has been surveyed to make sure that they get as accurate a database as possible. They are the ONLY carrier that has taken such a careful approach AFAIK. If the database is not accurate, neither are the location fixes.


Now, all of this assumes that YOUR cellular operator (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, whomever) has spent the money to put all of the hardware and software in place. I've given a very simplified version of all of this - a complete description would take pages. It's very expensive, and the ONLY reason anybody is doing anything about it is that they are REQUIRED to do so. They have a certain timetable, and that timetable is triggered by a request from the local PSAP. (Public Safety Answering Point - the 911 office) If the PSAP doesn't have the budget to upgrade their equipment to use the location data, nothing happens. Believe me, if the PSAP doesn't issue a request, the operator are NOT going to spend the money - there's no payback anywhere on the horizon for this expenditure. And it is BIG bucks.


If the E-911 system is not in place, the only "location" information that is available is the site on which your call originated. If it's a rural area, that site could serve a 50 mile radius. In a dense urban area, that site might serve a 1/8 mile radius. If it's an in-building system, it might serve only your building. There's no automated way to get this info, and law enforcement does not have accesss to it without a search warrant. That's how O.J. was "tracked" on his slow-speed chase. That was on an analog network. Oddly, with the new digital technologies, we don't have the ability to track calls cell site to cell site real time anymore. (It CAN be done if the phone is entered into a special debugging program before the call is placed. This is highly manppower intensive and is only intended as a diagnostic. Not very useful for mass surveilance.)


After a call has ended, the billing records will show the site on which the call was last carried.

That's it. No real "tracking", just a snapshot or two of locations at the beginning and end of a call.


Oh, one more thing - the E-911 stuff is NOT in widespread use. Most PSAPs just don't have the money. Remember those kids who drowned in New York? Big flap because they couldn't be located. Why not? Local PSAPs hadn't made a request - they didn't have the money. Why didn't they have the money? They've been getting tax money for this for years - and spending it elsewhere.

I saw a map a few months ago of where the PSAPs were ready for E-911. It looked kinda of like the "Bush Country" map (they're both county by county). Lots of not ready, and a few spots of ready.

You folks in Tennesee will be happy to know that you are well covered by E-911 services, and the fellow in charge of the PSAPs there was a pleasure to work with. A real Southern Gentleman, and a credit to your state. <sigh> Then there was the dispatcher in west Tennessee who threatened to have one of my engineers arrested. Dumb as a rock AND with a Napolean complex. Oh, well, got those everywhere. I enjoyed my time there anyway. Nice place.

 

[tx801]

pre-paid

 

[Quartus]

Are there any websites actively following this subject?
I doubt it would warrant a new forum here, but it would seem to be of some concern to gun owners, they being what is in many places a politically-unattractive special-interest group....

I got lost in the technical stuff and didn't address a more important point - the threat to liberty. This is a HUGE issue to us, and it puts us shoulder to shoulder with a group that has been traditionally liberal-dominated - the privacy rights crowd. Yes, there are websites.


Folks, this fight is OUR fight. We've been ignoring it for too long.