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can cellular phones be tarced to the exact location that you are calling from? | |
if you were driving on the highway, could your cell phone be traced to the exact streets that you are driving on?
Answers:
1It depends which phone you have.
Since your cell phone automatically seeks out the strongest signal, it will try to connect you to your network through the nearest cell tower. Your service provider is able to see which tower you are connected through and thus this information can be used to track your location to within 1 or 2 square miles - the typical area covered by a cell tower. This is certainly not enough to determine your exact location down to a street or address, but certainly would allow someone to know which town you were calling from. This approach was used in the Jayson Blair/New York Times case, when his cell phone records were used to prove that he was not in the places he said he was.
This cell tower approach works with all cell phones. However, newer cell phones are often now equipped with Global Positioning chips, which work with satellites to identify location to within around 20 feet - definitely enough to figure out what street you are on.
Cell phone manufacturers in the US are being forced to include these chips by the Federal Communications Commission who have mandated that emergency telephone operators should be able to see your exact location when you call 911 from your cell phone.
Typically, this information is not normally recorded for non-emergency purposes (unless you have signed up for specific location based services), but the capability is definitely there and such data has been used in a number of criminal cases where service providers have agreed to release location information under subpoena.
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