take the battery out...
Posted on 08/24/2014 9:05:14 PM PDT by upchuck
Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, [snip]
The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.
The world’s most powerful intelligence services, such as the National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ, long have used cellphone data to track targets around the globe. But experts say these new systems allow less technically advanced governments to track people in any nation — including the United States — with relative ease and precision.
Users of such technology type a phone number into a computer portal, which then collects information from the location databases maintained by cellular carriers, company documents show. In this way, the surveillance system learns which cell tower a target is currently using, revealing his or her location to within a few blocks in an urban area or a few miles in a rural one.
It is unclear which governments have acquired these tracking systems, but one industry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive trade information, said that dozens of countries have bought or leased such technology in recent years. This rapid spread underscores how the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar surveillance industry makes advanced spying technology available worldwide.
“Any tin-pot dictator with enough money to buy the system could spy on people anywhere in the world,” said Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, a London-based activist group that warns about the abuse of surveillance technology. “This is a huge problem.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The idea that someone is tracking me is akin to discovering I've got a 24/7/365 peeping tom with no way to get rid of him.
Can you put it in something until you absolutely need it?
I was on 24/365 call for 30 years. Had to have a cell phone. When I retired in January, I took it into the backyard, and blew it to Kingdom Come with my Ruger Redhawk 44 mag. Gave me a great deal of satisfaction!
Never owned a cell-phone.
Never plan to get one.
take the battery out...
Yes. If I were going to carry a cell phone I would put it in a clean, Mylar potato chip bag. The Mylar is enough to stop outgoing and incoming signals.
Try this yourself. Put a friend's phone in a potato chip bag and then call the phone. Bet it won't ring and you'll be asked to leave a message.
Another caveat: even when your cell phone is off, the tracking is on. It has to be for the cellular system to work. You can't (easily) turn it off.
Great idea. Except... the tracking system is powered by it's own battery that's inside the phone and not easily accessible. As I wrote above, the tracking system must stay on.
There are YouTube videos that explain/show how this works. Kinda scary.
Another caveat: even when your cell phone is off, the tracking is on. It has to be for the cellular system to work. You can’t (easily) turn it off.
Can it be tracked if the battery is taken out?
Good on y’all.
Take the battery out til you need to use the phone.
That’s what tinfoil is for.
Watch the YouTube videos.
Thanks!
gotta be a way to drain it
Precisely. I know folks who have made an envelope for their cell phone using tin foil and duct tape. Not at all pretty, but functional.
You can also buy professionally made cell pockets here:
Sure there is. Just leave the phone turned on and eventually the battery will run down. But, two things:
1. You have no way of knowing when the tracking battery has been sufficiently drained and
2. When it is, the phone won't work.
Much easier/cheaper to put the phone in a Faraday Cage like a potato chip bag.
There should be legislation to prevent people from tracking you. It should be considered to be an invasion of privacy. You have freedom of association, and people should not be able to track you as you travel and associate, for the purpose of exploiting your activity.
If there is a crime suspected, a judge can make an exception. Other than that, NO! Not a small perhaps no, it’s a great big f’n deal NO!
We give in to readily to these sorts of things. Businesses caught doing this should be prosecuted and shut down.
If you are suspected to be the victim of a crime, or are suspect of a serious crime, then you should be subject to tracking. Other than that, it’s an invasion of privacy, whether in the home or in public.
Anything that tracks your location without your permission, is a violation of your privacy. This includes credit information or anything else that can be used.
No, unless there is an actionable need to protect you or prosecute you with reasoned provision of proof prior to the warrant.
i know what the cages are, we had two where i used to work, i didn't know the Mylar in a bag was enough of a shield to work
The thin Mylar works because the cell signal is not very strong.
Mylar will not work on a sat phone because the signal is much stronger. Been there. Tried that. Several layers of tin foil (a stronger barrier) will shut off a sat phone.
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