Cell Phone Location Tracking

[Animorph]

Airplane mode should work fine to disable tracking. it should turn the radio off altogether. Though Wi-Fi may still be on. Turning the phone "off" comes nowhere close.

 

[Peter]

Airplane mode should work fine to disable tracking. it should turn the radio off altogether. Though Wi-Fi may still be on. Turning the phone "off" comes nowhere close.

Depends what you mean by "off". If you power down an iphone, everything is switched off.

I just tested this by powering off my phone, then checking the 'find my iphone' app. It did not find the phone. Switched back on, iphone is found straight away.

 

[M Paquette]

Depends what you mean by "off". If you power down an iphone, everything is switched off.

I just tested this by powering off my phone, then checking the 'find my iphone' app. It did not find the phone. Switched back on, iphone is found straight away.

iPhones work this way, with radio and CPU power being cut when off and only a power control chip remaining 'live' (to see the button press!), but some others do not. Testing individual models would be needed to confirm that 'off' kills the radio component.

 

[meierlde]

iPhones work this way, with radio and CPU power being cut when off and only a power control chip remaining 'live' (to see the button press!), but some others do not. Testing individual models would be needed to confirm that 'off' kills the radio component.

Since the airlines tell you to turn your cellphone off, if the off switch did not kill the radio, the cell network would have a fit as phones on planes would hit many cells at once driving the system to distraction. In addition there is a concern about interference with navigation equipment (all be it recently lessened) but the turn your cell phone off message or to airplane mode means to turn the radio off. When I have the phone off and drive a distance, it takes a bit of time for my dumb phone to figure out the nearest cell. (I have a non smart phone with no data).

 

[Animorph]

Depends what you mean by "off". If you power down an iphone, everything is switched off.

I just tested this by powering off my phone, then checking the 'find my iphone' app. It did not find the phone. Switched back on, iphone is found straight away.

iPhones appear to have a "sleep/wake" button. It does not turn off the radio when used briefly, allowing you to receive calls (and be tracked) and allowing it to consume data while you're not looking. In order to turn the phone "completely" off you have to press and hold the "sleep/wake" button and drag an on screen slider. That should turn off the radio. Of course it won't receive calls then. Looks like my Android phone has something very similar. Good thing, since my battery isn't removable.

So yes, if this is what you mean by "off" that would work as well. My DW thinks "off" is briefly hitting the sleep/wake button. As in "how could it be using data? It was off the whole time!"

 

[NW-Bound]

I re-read my post and realized that it was misleading if not wrong.

All the phones I have owned can be turned completely "Off". There's no need to remove the battery. However, in normal use the phones cannot be truly "Off", but must really be in "Standby" mode. That was my point, but I did not state it correctly. And many people do not care to know how to turn their phones completely off.

Yes, the iPhone user can turn off the radio link (airplane mode), the WIFI, or the Bluetooth independently. With this capability, other features such as the camera and the music player can be used while maintaining radio silence.

 

[martyp]

This is a great example of how cell phone tracking can work. A German Green Party politician got 6 months of data collected by the phone company and put together this website illustrating what could be done with the data.

Tell-all telephone | Data Protection | Digital | ZEIT ONLINE

 

[braumeister]

Just so everyone is clear on this, there are multiple "radios" in the iPhone.

From Apple's website:

When you enable airplane mode from the Settings screen, an airplane icon appears in the status bar at the top of the screen and the following wireless connections and services are turned off:

• Cellular (voice and data)
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Location services

If allowed by the aircraft operator and applicable laws and regulations, you can re-enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth while in airplane mode:

• Wi-Fi: While airplane mode is on, tap Settings > Wi-Fi, then turn Wi-Fi on and choose a Wi-Fi network.
• Bluetooth: While airplane mode is on, tap Settings > Bluetooth, then turn Bluetooth on.

 

[Socal Tom]

There are several apps available that let you track your cell phone. There have been several cases of carjacking that were quickly solved because the victims hid there cell phones in the car allowing police to quickly track down the car.
Tom