I have a Tracphone rather than a ‘regular’ cell phone. I’m wondering, with all the NSA tracking, how they handle this sort of phone since it isn’t associated with an account. Of course, I’m sure they can break into whatever lists of contacts are on the phone somehow ..... I’m waiting for them to outlaw phones where you don’t have to have an account with personal, identifying info.
I used to work for the Law Enforcement Relations department at a large cell phone company. When working with the DEA I found out the trakfones are hugely popular with drug dealers. They go through a lot of ‘em, throwing them away at pretty regular intervals.
You can only track the phone based on who the person calls and receives calls from. Every time you throw it away and get a new one, you are a “new entity”. The old one is “dead”.
They undoubtedly have a voice print for each of us.
I’ve got a tracphone also. There’s some kind of interference with it and my computer speakers and I get a signal crackle through the speakers a couple of seconds before a text ringtone goes off.
About once an hour the speakers give a similar but not as strong crackle like the phone is receiving a signal.
Maybe the phone company pings it at regular intervals to see how many phones are online in the network in a particular tower area?