Comment by avoutthere
8 years ago
How can one prevent this and still carry a cell phone? Would keeping one's phone in a faraday bag defeat this constant tracking?
8 years ago
How can one prevent this and still carry a cell phone? Would keeping one's phone in a faraday bag defeat this constant tracking?
I don't think it's possible through technological means to avoid being tracked and still use a wireless network. Even if you could anonymously authenticate to the network, if the base stations have a large number of antennas then they can locate the physical origin of your signal and track you that way.
It may be possible of course through other means, like government regulation or only using carriers that have some guarantee of privacy.
I mean unless you've got a ham license and bounce your signal through your own network of relays using a different band than the final signal to the cell tower. But I don't think that's going to work as a popular solution. Would be a really fun experiment to build though.
I wonder if you could still use latency timing to get a rough fix on location through a secondary network like that. Not that anyone would be trying to.
I'm pretty sure in most countries you can't carry encrypted traffic through ham packet radio.
A good start would be using a prepaid mobile phone (paid with cash, via an intermediary to avoid appearing on store CCTV), plus using phone apps that are not tied to your real identity. A Faraday bag for the phone when it's not in use.
Honestly, it just depends on how paranoid you want to get, and who your adversary is.
> using a prepaid mobile phone (paid with cash, via an intermediary to avoid appearing on store CCTV)
Nathan Fielder provides a good demonstration on how to properly do this:
https://youtu.be/N9gbdv5cXKg?t=51s
If your goal is to simply avoid your location being sold by your carrier for marketing purposes, an intermediary seems a little excessive, no? Unless you have reason to believe that your local pharmacy or cell shop is selling facial recognition data as well ...
Selling facial recognition data is the next big revenue stream. There is a reason the Googles of the world are gushing over installing internet connected surveillance cameras on every block [0].
[0] https://nest.com/cameras/
Last I heard, buying a "burner" phone in this way has been outlawed in many states.
I have been 'caught' buying a burner phone - many years ago - and since then I have thought about why it is that anyone can buy a burner phone without having to produce their mother's birth certificate and many years of bank statements. You would think 'terrorists' and drug dealers should be banned from such purchases.
However, if you have a burner phone for whatever reason, you are tracked and it is a relatively simple task for a three letter agency to see when that burner phone swaps cell towers and what other phones swap cell towers at the same time.
Consequently, for tracking purposes, letting anyone have a phone is what they want.
Even with the best efforts at 'operational security' a mere mortal is going to end up getting tracked.
Think of it a bit like 'shadow Facebook profiles'.
For instance, in the drug dealer scenario, the guy has one phone to speak to his mum and girlfriend and another set of interchangeable burner phones for his customers. It is all too easy. I am sure that the agencies can turn on the cameras too, fortunately the police still run Windows XP and have too much paperwork to fill in for this type of stuff.
After reading this article I am not so sure this will be the case for long.
Regarding the 'nothing to hide' rationale, if anyone has had a sick, crazy psychopath stalker pursue them for YEARS then being on the electoral roll or being on Facebook can be as good as fatal. There are good reasons to not want to be tracked, even if you have one stupid person focused 24/7 on stalking you rather than an agency/police force doing it.
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Yes, electrostatic shielding will stop the signal, which will also prevent incoming calls/msgs/etc.
Taking the battery out?
Switch to flight mode.
Removing the battery is a better choice.
I have an iPhone, you insensitive clod!
Yes. But switching off location will probably do it too.
Carriers will still be able to track you via the cell towers you're connected to. I'm sure they can triangulate based upon signal strength, and that's strictly using your cellphone as a dumb phone.
> "But switching off location will probably do it too."
Wrong. Phones can be triangulated by the carriers regardless.
Can we trust the GPS receiver to be powered down when we the OS tells us it's powered down? I know Android keeps listening for WiFi stations even if you tell it to turn off the antenna. Might it do the same thing with GPS?
No switching off location would not do it - why would it? Cell tower data is sold at the carrier as per the article.
I'm focused on GPS data which is a free for all. Sure, cell towers have location too just not quite as accurate.
It may help in regards to your exact location via GPS, but cell companies can still triangulate your location based off how strong your signal is to certain towers in the area and which towers you have connected to recently.