US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data

Re:US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone lo... by awelkie on Wednesday May 16, 2018 @09:58AM (#17082377)

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.

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Re:US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone lo... by vertexFarm on Wednesday May 16, 2018 @11:18AM (#17083076)

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.

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Re:US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone lo... by ttsda on Wednesday May 16, 2018 @05:33PM (#17086696)

I'm pretty sure in most countries you can't carry encrypted traffic through ham packet radio.

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