Iphone tracking

I rarely carry my moblie, use cash, and keep a low profile.
A positive use of this recently was when a lady was raped/murdered, the killer took her body and handbag to dump. They matched when her phone passed a change over just as his car passed a road toll point, took the toll registered name to the police records & he was on parole for rape. Bingo.

Daryl wrote:I rarely carry my moblie, use cash, and keep a low profile.
A positive use of this recently was when a lady was raped/murdered, the killer took her body and handbag to dump. They matched when her phone passed a change over just as his car passed a road toll point, took the toll registered name to the police records & he was on parole for rape. Bingo.

As I said, this technology has it's good points and it has it's bad points. I am much like you. I don't want people to know what I am doing every second. But there are legitimate police uses for this technology. My personal concern is the uses beyond police functions. I just don't see any regulation of who uses the acquired Info. How many cases have there been lately of cyber-stalking, -bullying and -harassment? Do I want that info about me floating around out there with no control? NO. Can I control it? Only to a limited extent. As much as I hate the idea of more governmental oversight, some kind of regulation should be implemented, whether it is self regulation by cell service providers or the government.

KNick wrote:

Spacekiwi wrote:Ah. ok. but what information can they get off the phone? is it like details of who you are, or just where you've been?
And does it affect prepay equally with contract people?

That is one of the problems that I see. I don't know what information goes out on that signal. From some of the things said in the article, they can get enough information to send advertising directly to you, although whether that is to your home or to your phone, I haven't a clue. I would guess it would depend on the info carried on that signal. That is something you would have to talk to your cell service provider about.
It might be something as simple as just your phone number. With that, they can do a reverse directory look-up to get a name and address. Once they have that, they can find out anything online about you. As I asked in the original post, how big an invasion of privacy is this?

Don't be too optimistic about limiting the amount of data.
The real issue is that all they need is a unique handle. With that it is possible (given a high enough density of detectors, of course, in time and/or location) to track you well enough to get a rough location for your home, work and any other regular activity. These days it's quite doable to cross-link that with other public information (think facebook, linked-in, any publicly accessible register) and you're pretty much identified.

One very real, and current, use for this technology is advertising and product placement. By monitoring where you go, companies can determine what to market to you.

If you spend 30 minutes a week in Best Buy, you'll begin receiving fliers and e-mails from Best Buy or other electronics stores. I am sure some nefarious organization will utilize the tracking data to follow our every move, but more companies will by that tracking data for promotional reasons.

You stop by Dunkin Doughnut's every morning on the way to work, then every week you stop at BP for gasoline, before being in a work location for nine hours, then swing by FYE once a week to check the new releases. On the same trip you stop by Barnes and Noble to check their new releases too, before going by Stop and Shop for groceries once a week on the way home.

By learning your cell phone's patterns, they learn what ads to send you that are more likely to get results. So rather than inundating you with everything, you'll get targeted advertisements. Sure, you'll still get plenty of junk, but a measurable amount will be tailored for your interests, there for more likely to produce results for marketing departments.

They don't even need much in the way of what is considered 'privacy information' to do it. The route your phone travels, and an e-mail address to send the advertisements to. Nothing else. By today's standards, that's not much in the way of privacy information. Cell carriers will simply omit any data that is flagged as being a private residence location, to head off concerns of people finding out sensitive data.

Of course, as many people here have noted, this is all pretty intrusive. And no one 'wants' to be tracked in such a manner. An invasion of privacy, etc, is what it certainly is.

Given the capabilities of technology right now, the only way to keep any electronics you carry from being followed is to turn it off, remove the batteries (many have 2, a back up battery like a watch battery which maintains special memory, and a second main battery to power the device), and remove any SIM cards or RF devices. Simply being powered down, in airplane mode, or main battery removed is not enough any more.

Fireflair wrote:One very real, and current, use for this technology is advertising and product placement. By monitoring where you go, companies can determine what to market to you.

If you spend 30 minutes a week in Best Buy, you'll begin receiving fliers and e-mails from Best Buy or other electronics stores. I am sure some nefarious organization will utilize the tracking data to follow our every move, but more companies will by that tracking data for promotional reasons.

You stop by Dunkin Doughnut's every morning on the way to work, then every week you stop at BP for gasoline, before being in a work location for nine hours, then swing by FYE once a week to check the new releases. On the same trip you stop by Barnes and Noble to check their new releases too, before going by Stop and Shop for groceries once a week on the way home.

By learning your cell phone's patterns, they learn what ads to send you that are more likely to get results. So rather than inundating you with everything, you'll get targeted advertisements. Sure, you'll still get plenty of junk, but a measurable amount will be tailored for your interests, there for more likely to produce results for marketing departments.

They don't even need much in the way of what is considered 'privacy information' to do it. The route your phone travels, and an e-mail address to send the advertisements to. Nothing else. By today's standards, that's not much in the way of privacy information. Cell carriers will simply omit any data that is flagged as being a private residence location, to head off concerns of people finding out sensitive data.

Of course, as many people here have noted, this is all pretty intrusive. And no one 'wants' to be tracked in such a manner. An invasion of privacy, etc, is what it certainly is.

Given the capabilities of technology right now, the only way to keep any electronics you carry from being followed is to turn it off, remove the batteries (many have 2, a back up battery like a watch battery which maintains special memory, and a second main battery to power the device), and remove any SIM cards or RF devices. Simply being powered down, in airplane mode, or main battery removed is not enough any more.

But they still need something other then just your phone to send ads and stuff to you? Im on prepay, so theres no account attached to my number, and I dont use email on my phone as its too slow, and dont use the wifi either. so they can track my phone, but location data is all they'll get. And the cell phone towers arent as dense here in NZ, so im not sure how well they can locate you. In the central cities they may be, but out in the suburbs and such, they are actually reasonably far apart. case in point: my two local towers are about 8 km apart, and at the distance where you get 1 bar at the limit of one before moving into the next.

Spacekiwi wrote:But they still need something other then just your phone to send ads and stuff to you? Im on prepay, so theres no account attached to my number, and I dont use email on my phone as its too slow, and dont use the wifi either. so they can track my phone, but location data is all they'll get. And the cell phone towers arent as dense here in NZ, so im not sure how well they can locate you. In the central cities they may be, but out in the suburbs and such, they are actually reasonably far apart. case in point: my two local towers are about 8 km apart, and at the distance where you get 1 bar at the limit of one before moving into the next.

Nope. All they need is the phone number. They don't need your name or anything to track the phone. Then they simply send the ad to that phone number. And all they need to track the phone is a receiver. They don't need the cell towers at all. As I said, in could be in your local supermarket, the clothing store, the coffee shop or anywhere else they might like to collect marketing data. They currently don't need your permission or the permission or help of the cell providers. since there is no transmitter involved in their part of the operation, there wouldn't be any indication that it was happening.

Daryl wrote:I rarely carry my moblie, use cash, and keep a low profile.
A positive use of this recently was when a lady was raped/murdered, the killer took her body and handbag to dump. They matched when her phone passed a change over just as his car passed a road toll point, took the toll registered name to the police records & he was on parole for rape. Bingo.

What is scary to me is the amount of people who are handing smartphones and other devices that are just as dangerous to their kids without using oversight and giving the kids instructions on safety. Its a nightmare to me since my kids are just now getting old enough and one already has a smart device.
For that reason i have given a set of safety instructions to her and i know my ex has as well. I plan to do the same to the rest.

KNick wrote:

Spacekiwi wrote:But they still need something other then just your phone to send ads and stuff to you? Im on prepay, so theres no account attached to my number, and I dont use email on my phone as its too slow, and dont use the wifi either. so they can track my phone, but location data is all they'll get. And the cell phone towers arent as dense here in NZ, so im not sure how well they can locate you. In the central cities they may be, but out in the suburbs and such, they are actually reasonably far apart. case in point: my two local towers are about 8 km apart, and at the distance where you get 1 bar at the limit of one before moving into the next.

Nope. All they need is the phone number. They don't need your name or anything to track the phone. Then they simply send the ad to that phone number. And all they need to track the phone is a receiver. They don't need the cell towers at all. As I said, in could be in your local supermarket, the clothing store, the coffee shop or anywhere else they might like to collect marketing data. They currently don't need your permission or the permission or help of the cell providers. since there is no transmitter involved in their part of the operation, there wouldn't be any indication that it was happening.

Damn. that is intrusive. but how do they know you are in their store? are their receivers that can work out where a phone is that are comercially available for people to buy to locate phones legally?

Spacekiwi wrote:
Damn. that is intrusive. but how do they know you are in their store? are their receivers that can work out where a phone is that are comercially available for people to buy to locate phones legally?

The receiver is located in the store. You walked in to the store and up to the receiver. From what I can tell, it is a limited sensitivity receiver, good for somewhere between 50 and 150 ft. (just guessing there). Then all they need is the software to read the phone number. And at the current time, legally available and legal to operate. And since it is a receiver, it doesn't leave a tell-tale on your phone, nor are stores required to warn you that they are doing this. One of the reasons I was wondering about rules and privacy.

mark wrote:
Don't be too optimistic about limiting the amount of data.
The real issue is that all they need is a unique handle. With that it is possible (given a high enough density of detectors, of course, in time and/or location) to track you well enough to get a rough location for your home, work and any other regular activity. These days it's quite doable to cross-link that with other public information (think facebook, linked-in, any publicly accessible register) and you're pretty much identified.

Yup. What do you think the big switchover to IPv6 was about?

Number of addresses
IPv4(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): 4,294,967,296
IPv6(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

IPv6 has enough addresses to give one to each atom on Earth and hence any amount of individual devices the human race is going to produce. Your smartphone is only the start - we're going to see cookers, fridges, heating systems, etc. get their own address, ostensibly so your smartphone can connect to them remotely and give instructions. Most people think it's a good idea being able to check your fridge stock before leaving work, so you can shop on the way home. Or turn the oven on, so it's preheated and ready to cook the minute you step through the door.

However, it also gives any government the opportunity to monitor everything constantly. Forget waiting 10 years for census results - just look up real-time numbers. Great if you can trust your government not to be exploitative or allow corporations to be.