[PW] ? cell phone GPS

[FERGUSON Timothy]

 I'm not an expert, so please take this with a grain of salt.

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
Mary Barna
Sent: Friday, 5 October 2007 5:46
To: Project Wombat
Subject: [PW] ? cell phone GPS

> This is for me.  I am technically challenged. I know that in your cell
phone is a chip whereby you can be traced through GPS.  I have several
questions,
> 1. Does this work even if the phone is shut off?

Sort of. The GPS in most handsets is pretty dumb. It only sends
information if you make an emergency call, so while it may keep ticking
over in background it's not working in the wider sense of emitting a
continuous signal that can be tracked.  I mean, usually, you -can- pay
for this as an added service if you like.  Say you have a senior parent
with memory problems or a child, you can set their phones so that they
are never off and they ring into the network with a location every so
often.

> 2. Does this work if your battery runs down?

No.

> 3. Do you have to turn on the GPS in some way?

No, because you are not allowed to muck with it. Well, generally you
can't muck with it, manufacturers vary.

I'm assuming you are an American for this answer, OK?  In your country,
new phones (post 2005) must legally have GPS-like features, and these
aren't fiddlable by you unless you have a knowledge of electronics and a
soldering iron.  Well, usually.  Providers vary.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gps-phone2.htm Is pretty good on
this.

In my country, GPS in phones is not compulsorily, and they find your
phone using the system others have described, which is basically that
you phone tells nearby towers where it is, every so often, so that calls
can be routed to you.  Using the strength of signal, or angle of arrival
of signal, police can make a good guess as to approximately where you
are, provided the towers have a dense sort of clustering.  In rural
areas, where you only have one tower, they can tell you are in signal
distance of that one tower, and the general direction your signal came
from, but not much else.

The difference between the two countries is supposedly an after-effect
of 9/11. The program is called Enhanced 911 (or E911 for short).

> 4. How do "they" find you?

Here, with a bit of luck and a general search area.  Over there, when
you ring, say, emergency services, the phone automatically gives its GPS
reading to the receiver of your call in the background of your call.
Your network and provider can enable extra features if you like, like
data logging (which records where the phone goes) and geofencing (which
switches the GPS on and sends out a signal to the network once you leave
a defined safe area), if you ask.


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