Cell Phone GPS Tracking

[SHRED]

Okay...my wife has concerns that she was tracked by someone via her cell phone's GPS.

Is this possible by someone with only a phone number to go on or does an app need to be installed with permission granted?

thanks

[douglas9]

1. Self Delete

[bananas]

2. Yes it's possible

You might want to try scanning for malware with Lookout,
it has free and premium versions with a free 14-day trial of the premium features.

One feature Lookout is the ability to find your phone if it's lost or stolen.

The same company also offers "Plan B",
if someone loses their phone but never installed one of the "find my phone" apps,
Plan B will find the phone anyway.

http://www.mylookout.com/

http://blog.mylookout.com/blog/2012/05/09/find-your-lost-phone-plan-b/

[HopeHoops]

3. I don't know who the "someone" might be, but you don't need GPS to track a cell phone.

The cell towers always know exactly where you are (if there are any around) by triangulation. Mostly that's so they can immediately route a call and use the tower that has the strongest signal (and available bandwidth), but it also means that the cell phone company could pinpoint you at any time as long as your phone is on. This was true from the earliest days of cell phones and well before GPS was common.

[Phillip McCleod]

5. both of the first two legit posts are spot on, imo.

for instance my droid razr m has four location methods, which i can check/uncheck for all but 911 emergency services. there's the google location, verizon, gps location, and external provider or some such. out here in BFE with no verizon network i can still be tracked in at least three ways off the top of my head.. the google locator and gps, plus via the wifi for this laptop, via IP.

to disable gps entirely, it's necessary to hack your phone, hardware AND software.

when will this problem go away? when the operating system is truly accessible to open-source developers. i expect the advent of ubuntu multi-device to pave the way for the kind of fine-grained control over devices that only root access to full linux kernel and supporting libraries will give us.

soon.. soon we can make the first phone upgrade that really matters.

soooon..

http://www.ubuntu.com/phone

[rhett o rick]

6. I am basic cell phone illiterate. If I use Google maps on my IPhone

and am done using the feature, do I have to shut off Location Services or will closing the app suffice?

If Location Services is on, do you drain the battery significantly?

[Phillip McCleod]

7. i turn all the location services off and on when i want them..

..except google's location service because it's not hardware based (no battery drain) and most apps don't need GPS data for basic non-exact location services. anyway if they do need it, they'll ask for it. GPS uses battery faster than almost anything else so yeh, i'd turn it off manually when not using it.

[rhett o rick]

8. thanks. which features use the gps? nm

[Phillip McCleod]

9. it's app-based..

and many of them will work with whichever location service you have turned on. for example i just started 'google sky map' and it located me in the nearest TOWN (15 miles away). if i turn on GPS then it locates me on my couch next to my fat cat.

otoh i just started 'google navigation' and it just told me i needed to turn on GPS to use it.

now compare to 'google maps' which apparently used the IP to locate me across the road at my neighbor's house.. the source of my wifi signal!

so yeh.. it varies from app to app.. even when they're all google apps!

[rhett o rick]

10. I hope you dont mind if I ask a few questions. Well a few more.

Thanks for the help so far.

Explain if you will the differences of the following:

Powering off

turning off Location Services

turning off the screen but not complete power down.

using lower center button to go from an app to main screen.

[Phillip McCleod]

11. sure thing..

Power off does just that.. shuts down the operating system and cuts power to all circuits except the hardware clock..same as any computer.

Shut off location services are software settings... only the GPS settings turns of power to a circuit. The other services are software only. it's similar to your Bluetooth settings. Or WiFi settings. These turn circuits on and off and save you power.

turning off the screen only puts the device in low power mode. Usually this means services are turned off as well. But you can set it up in different ways. For instance you can leave wifi on when the screen is off.

the home button will make some apps quit as will the back button but it depends on the app. Kind of annoying really.. they should all have a quit menu item but don't. Firefox doesn't but there is an Add On that adds it back in! WTF?!

I'm now in the habit of hitting the clean button once in a while... it is tucked away in the apps menu under the running sections at the bottom of the screen. Yeah Thanks Android. Hit the button that shows all your apps then tap 'Running' to see which apps are currently running. There is a status on memory usage at the bottom and a broom icon next to it. Tap the broom and only background apps will restart. I should make a gesture for it I do it 20x a day.



edit.. not sure if the 'running' feature is standard Android launcher feature or GO launcher .. which i have installed. there's an app for that tho' if you can't find it from your home screen.

[rhett o rick]

12. I want to thank you very much.

I have an IPhone 4s (I think that's a 4 with IOS 6)

I was having a problem in messaging. The texting box at the bottom did not appear. Couldnt figure out how to get it back. So I used the home button and pushed twice and it shows the running apps. I closed the messaging app and reopened it and everything was back to normal.

Thanks again for the help.

I think we should have a thread for IPhone help.

[Phillip McCleod]

13. you are welcome! i like the idea of a 'mobile' forum..

.. i also like the idea of a 'hardware hackers' forum. tinkerers are their own breed of hacker & tend to get lost in the software chatter.

enjoy your tricorder!