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I recently got a question from a police officer on how to locate criminals' cell phone. I gave him my cell tower location tool traces phone location by LAC and cellID. However it would be impossible to pinpoint a handset in rural areas precisely as there are less or fewer cell phone towers. BTW, he has precise latitude and longitude of each base station, and there is no way you can install any APP on the target phone.
I once read here somewhere that the carrier can make the phone to reveal its GPS coordinate via the sim card, or something like this.
So anyone knows more information about this or any other way to trace mobile devices in remote areas? It would help to prevent more crimes. Thanks
Hi, that is correct. There is no way to track a specific device via an app per se. The only way to get tracking is by using E911 services, which is required for CDMA phones. Even then this only enables the A-GPS functionality in the phone, or in other words, cellular triangulation like you were talking about.
Getting GPS coordinates on a phone is a slippery slope because really, that is a violation of privacy UNLESS the user consents to it in some fashion. Kind of like when people download apps and dont read the permissions about what the app wants to access (you would be surprised at what information people are willing to give up).
There are very strict laws about this, unless there is a proof that the person being tracked is breaking the law and is threatening the safety of the country.
So E911 is the only way to release that part of the phone to access that data. This is why disposable phones are quite common amongst criminals, not too dissimilar to tv shows, where they just toss the phone.
Hi, that is correct. There is no way to track a specific device via an app per se. The only way to get tracking is by using E911 services, which is required for CDMA phones. Even then this only enables the A-GPS functionality in the phone, or in other words, cellular triangulation like you were talking about.
Getting GPS coordinates on a phone is a slippery slope because really, that is a violation of privacy UNLESS the user consents to it in some fashion. Kind of like when people download apps and dont read the permissions about what the app wants to access (you would be surprised at what information people are willing to give up).
There are very strict laws about this, unless there is a proof that the person being tracked is breaking the law and is threatening the safety of the country.
So E911 is the only way to release that part of the phone to access that data. This is why disposable phones are quite common amongst criminals, not too dissimilar to tv shows, where they just toss the phone.
Hello, thanks for the informative reply. It seems GPS is the only way in this case which is not available at all. As to the privacy issue, I have no idea how the cops handle it. Thanks again.
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