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I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone
Vice ^ | January 8, 2019 | Joseph Cox

Posted on 01/09/2019 6:26:25 AM PST by C19fan

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To: C19fan

When my daughter was a senior in high-school she had her phone stolen out of her purse.

I called the number and some kid answered. I told him that I was “Phil Kreblowski from Verizon Security” and barked a number of loud, pointed questions at him.

The next day the phone was left sitting on a teacher’s desk.


21 posted on 01/09/2019 7:25:49 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: BornToBeAmerican

I started and currently run a company that tracks cell phones and other devices. If anyone has any questions, is be happy to answer.


22 posted on 01/09/2019 7:26:57 AM PST by Celerity
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To: All

“Maybe the police don’t want to give out their detecting secrets”

Unlike the press and politicians who routinely divulge military ops and police investigative efforts.


23 posted on 01/09/2019 7:30:38 AM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed it wright.)
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To: bigbob
A mobile phone is a whole slew of radios. WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, and GPS. I'm so old that I remember when this thing was THE radio...


24 posted on 01/09/2019 7:35:46 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Celerity
I am two years new to smart phones.

What I have seen with it and our company vehicle tracking devices, one can be tracked in real time to about 50 ft.

Logged actions know all your movements and time durations.

25 posted on 01/09/2019 7:54:09 AM PST by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's fore sure)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
“I like to watch murder mysteries and it still astounds me how many criminals never think their phone, or the phone of their victim, will be used to track down the facts of the case.”

It is hilarious. Back in 2002 I had a friend who was an officer for the Phoenix metro area police department who was trained on the stingray who filled me in on how any phone could be tracked.

If you're ever going to be committing a crime leave your phone at home playing videos of porn as you cruise around with a burner phone that: you bought months previously with cash, that has always been in a faraday bag, never been near your residence, and that has never been turned on before that day. Also your vehicle should be an old junker with a carburetor or better yet, an older motorcycle.

26 posted on 01/09/2019 8:04:35 AM PST by wildcard_redneck
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To: BornToBeAmerican
Have you guys heard of Life360.

Yep. We've got it installed on all our phones. Comes in handy when we need to locate the kids.

27 posted on 01/09/2019 8:13:07 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: beef

We have a cell tower on our farm and the cops stop by about once a year saying they traced a 911 call pinging our address.


28 posted on 01/09/2019 8:22:54 AM PST by gloryblaze
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To: C19fan

I use the Tasker app on my android phone. If my wife or kids text me a specific string of text my phone automatically sends a reply message that includes the speed at which I am moving and also a hyperlink that opens Google maps to the exact location where I can be found.

It is a great tool unless I am somewhere that I’m not supposed to be such as Costco.


29 posted on 01/09/2019 8:41:15 AM PST by killermosquito (Buffalo, Detroit (and eventually France) is what you get when liberalism runs its course.)
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To: wildcard_redneck

Why a carburetor?


30 posted on 01/09/2019 9:05:21 AM PST by perfect stranger
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To: perfect stranger

“Why a carburetor?”

LOL. if it has a carburetor you can be assured without a doubt that it does not have GPS tracking or a black box recorder. That car will not have one damned computer processor chip in it - a car with a carburetor is almost guaranteed to be totally based on mechanical systems and any electronics that it does have are devoid of software.


31 posted on 01/09/2019 9:28:37 AM PST by wildcard_redneck
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To: wildcard_redneck

“a car with a carburetor is almost guaranteed to be totally based on mechanical systems and any electronics that it does have are devoid of software.”


Late 60’s cars went from mechanical voltage regulators to solid state. This may make them susceptible to EMP damage.


32 posted on 01/09/2019 9:56:36 AM PST by RideForever
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To: C19fan
...approximate to a few hundred metres.

Non-American English in use here?

33 posted on 01/09/2019 10:18:00 AM PST by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Deaf Smith

Cellular tracking is both nicer than you think, and more evil than you think.

The most “evil” user of LBS (Location Based Services) is Google. But google also is how we all know traffic conditions and best ways to get to places using their navigation. Google doesn’t tell you this but even if you’re not signed up for the service, they track you to make sure that you’re not stuck in traffic. It also watches how fast you get from place to place and if you’re early they will put your route higher in the list to tell other people.

But if you want to increase traffic by your business, you can also contact Google and pay lots of money to direct people past your business ... if it affects their trip by less than about a minute that is.

If someone wants to find your phone, they’re out of luck. Finding your phone without your permission is NOT easy nor is it readily available to anyone. On top of that, it’s so wonky and imprecise that the result is worthless anyway.

Cellular companies used to be the ones giving this info out, but their reliability is so bad now that that end of the business has crashed. Now developers look towards Google and Apple for them to get the hardware to tell the service where they are. The cellular companies get “radius”, which is a range of where you MAY be. The device itself can give it’s location to within a few feet.

My system utilizes every method of LBS to cater to the client. The user of the phone is always made aware and has always “opted in” to whichever service we deploy.

Unique to my company are several functions that are unique to the industry. I can’t go into details, but we take privacy to “the next level” and make our users very, very aware of how their data is used.

At the moment users of the new iPhones are most protected, but Apple has a backdoor to get whatever they want from your phone. They are guarding it jealously because they can make massive profits themselves instead of letting others know the location of their devices.

Apple is the second most evil company, despite their efforts to “protect their clients”. Their “protection” is much like the Mafia - They don’t want to see you ok, they want to make sure they are the only ones capable of hurting you.

The third most evil company is any company making these things inside of the CCP. That means that the ONLY brands you’re safe with are Sony and Samsung. There are backdoors on every phone within the Chinese sphere of influence that they have access to to sell to whoever approaches them properly on it. Samsung’s exception to this has not been proven, but South Korea doesn’t really like China on the official level. China usually wins whatever they want though. Sony, since breaking up with Ericsson, has returned their processes to Japan. They use Qualcomm chipsets and other chinese micro-systems though.

I’m going to be frank with everyone here. Since they got rid of Analogue cellular systems, you have been tracked. The shame of it is that the tracking is not to protect any people at any time. If your kid goes missing you do not have access to cellular tracking at all. If some money goes missing, the FBI has you tracked immediately. We all clearly know why the tracking is being used - It’s against you. It’s a control mechanism.

I have been approached by a large number of bail bond companies to track fugitives. The answer is “No” from my company, but “yes” from other companies. And the tracking system is being abused daily. I work hard with the carriers to prevent such things and point out malicious servers and systems that still do this. But I can’t point out malicious uses with Apple, MS or Google. They simply don’t care or they intended the abuse as such.

Many think I’m a paranoid on this topic, but I am a subject matter expert in the field. Tracking is both something you should like, and something you should fear.


34 posted on 01/09/2019 10:31:47 AM PST by Celerity
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To: exinnj

“Turn it off”

Not so easy. There isn’t a single tracking method that is in use anymore. The data is simply too corrupt to go with a single method of tracking.

You will need to partially go off the grid to hide from it. That means no cellular phone AT ALL. No car made after 2007 either. (Although non-connected cars track your movement through logs that must be accessed physically to get)(GM and Ford are part of a cellular network that uploads LBS info without your approval)

As an LBS professional and someone slightly more into conspiracy theory than Dale Gribbel from King of the Hill I use an android smartphone and drive a 2009 partially connected GM truck. Mine was a few years before the “built in wi-fi” features that Onstar released but I still frequently upload to onstar even without a subscription. I’ve sniffed the packets and it still tries to authenticate with the tower and it sends an encrypted packet to the tower that may or may not contain current GPS info.

Only old analogue phones don’t track. That’s why the US was so hot to get rid of them and move to the newer, lower-powered digital equipment. Those headers contain device info, whereas simple RF traffic does not.

Finally if you have a major market email address your gps is being used all the time based on your IP access info. IP LBS is VERY inaccurate but they are getting better. New routers know their exact GPS location and it’s no longer a matter of getting the GPS of the upstream switching station. Now it’s down to the room or building you are in. If you access a gmail, yahoo, icloud, etc account this information is in your log. Forever.


35 posted on 01/09/2019 10:40:15 AM PST by Celerity
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To: C19fan

I just found out the name of the bounty hunter. I know this guy, he’s no good.

He himself has a record.


36 posted on 01/09/2019 10:46:10 AM PST by Celerity
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To: Celerity
At the moment users of the new iPhones are most protected, but Apple has a backdoor to get whatever they want from your phone. They are guarding it jealously because they can make massive profits themselves instead of letting others know the location of their devices.

Totally false. Only the user has access to the data on their mobile devices. . . and Apple cannot access it. Here’s how iOS12 security works as of November 2018. Apple can access some data stored on the iCloud but not all.

Your claim that Samsung or Sony are secure is laughable based apparently on your assumption that these two companies make their products either in Korea or Japan. Both Samsung and Sony are among the largest customers doing business with Taiwanese contract assembler Foxconn to assemble their mobile devices in China. Android is in itself inherently insecure with currently over seventeen million registered malware signatures for unrooted Android while there are fewer than 100 for iOS, most of which are in China where there is a proliferation of side loading App stores using unauthorized spoofed commercial accounts to side load install Enterprise apps.

The key security chips Apple uses are designed completely by Apple and are not touched by Chinese makers. They can only insert the components on a logic board also designed 100% by Apple in the US.

Samsung’s vaunted KNOX encryption keys were found to be kept in an unsecure, unencrypted, easily found on-device library file. . . which meant the data encryption was easy to break. Samsung Knox isn't as secure as you think it is

. There have been tools to unlock all Samsung devices available to both authorities and the underworld all along. Not so for iOS devices.


Apple billboard outside the January 2019 Las Vegas Convention Center
for Consumer Electronics Show

There is zero evidence that Apple uses any of their customers’ data in the manner you imply. There is no "back door" because if there were it would be found and exploited. Encryption and security is binary, you are either secure, or you are not.

37 posted on 01/09/2019 11:36:03 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot!)
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To: exinnj

As long as voice activation does not turn it on, you are correct.


38 posted on 01/09/2019 12:50:33 PM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: C19fan

I heard about this society where everyone had in their possessionthese huge books where everyone was listed alphabetically, with their address AND phone number.


39 posted on 01/09/2019 1:25:29 PM PST by Tea Party Terrorist (A bad peace is better than a good war.)
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