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Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

an.dywa.ng

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Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#171

Post by spzb »

apparent wrote: post #162

I've noticed that when I travel, I get spam calls from the area code I am visiting. I have asked my cell provider if they monetize my location data, and they swear they aren't. But I don't trust them, given that no one else (other than Apple) would know where I am in real time. Recently switched providers and haven't experienced it since then. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a class action lawsuit someday. Of cour…

I'd be looking at ad networks rather than telcos in this case. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/google-settlement-may-...

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#172

Post by sejje »

sneak wrote: post #156

All over southern California and Nevada, facial recognition cameras have been put up aiming all four directions at most surface street intersections. It’s also illegal to sell new cars without a cell modem in them. The phones are the least of our worries.

Which jurisdiction is it illegal to sell new cars without a cell modem?

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#173

Post by crazygringo »

instagib wrote: post #21

What you need iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, or iPad Pro (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular iOS 26.3 or later A supported carrier: Germany: Telekom United Kingdom: EE, BT United States: Boost Mobile Thailand: AIS, True Turn limit precise location on or off Open Settings, then tap Cellular. Tap Cellular Data Options. If you have more than one phone number under SIMs, tap one of your lines. Scroll down to Limit Precise Location. Turn the…

Serious question: will this limit the ability of 911 emergency services to help you?

I can imagine a scenario where emergency servies are authorized to send the ping to get your precise location and if you disable this, you may regret it. And a major feature of some phones/watches is the ability to automatically call 911 under certain fall/crash movement detection, where you might not have the ability to re-enable your GPS location.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#175

Post by Gigachad »

ianpenney wrote: post #76
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #40

This community should be talking about meshcore more imho. It's a peer to peer network based on Lora. It really only allows text messaging but with up to 20km hops between peers coverage is surprisingly huge. Incredibly useful if you go hiking with friends (if you get split up you can still stay in touch). See https://eastmesh.au/ and scroll down to the map for the Victoria and now more widely Australia network that'…

I’ve been wondering this for a while and maybe someone has a clue. Based on the very “bursty” nature of LoRA, how much does an adversary need to spend to radiolocate it? What’s the threat model there?

You could get a rough location for free. Every time you send a message, “observer” nodes connected to the internet publish the packet, and in the packet is the repeater path taken, repeaters have known locations and the first repeater is going to be near you.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#177

Post by fragmede »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #40

This community should be talking about meshcore more imho. It's a peer to peer network based on Lora. It really only allows text messaging but with up to 20km hops between peers coverage is surprisingly huge. Incredibly useful if you go hiking with friends (if you get split up you can still stay in touch). See https://eastmesh.au/ and scroll down to the map for the Victoria and now more widely Australia network that'…

If you go hiking with friends who aren't total nerds, the proprietary options offer a more consumer-grade experience. (ie, usable by them)

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#178

Post by _flux »

roywiggins wrote: post #25
hammock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work?

The phone could literally pop up a consent alert asking whether to respond to a GPS ping request from the carrier. Or just not honor the pings at all unless you dialed 911 within the last hour. This is a specific service inside the phone that looks for messages from the carrier requesting a GPS position, it could just refuse, or lie. It's not the same as cell tower triangulation.

I can imagine situations where the emergency is noticed by other people that might not be near the location itself, and the person whose location would need to be determined is not able to use the mobile phone, such as could be the case in many accidents.

I think it would be sufficient to just have a log of this information being queried, and cases where the information has been pinged without a legitimate use case would the be investigated.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#179

Post by esseph »

copperx wrote: post #48
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #40

This community should be talking about meshcore more imho. It's a peer to peer network based on Lora. It really only allows text messaging but with up to 20km hops between peers coverage is surprisingly huge. Incredibly useful if you go hiking with friends (if you get split up you can still stay in touch). See https://eastmesh.au/ and scroll down to the map for the Victoria and now more widely Australia network that'…

It is surprising that these networks aren't more popular. There are still many places and situation where connectivity isn't available

It's because they aren't very resilient. More of an experiment than a purpose designed tool for the, uh, current environment.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#180

Post by nateberkopec »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #3

Emergency services (with the proper software) have been able to get your precise location from your phone for a while now. This isn’t a new capability and shouldn’t be surprising.

I spent ~5 years volunteering for a search and rescue team in New Mexico.

We definitely got the cellphone tower triangulation data. I never once saw GNSS data provided by a carrier. We used FindMeSAR https://findmesar.com/, the subject would usually text back the coordinates from the phone.

Just one data point.

The revolution that's occurred since my SAR volunteer days is the wide availability of satellite messenging on consumer phones. I'm guessing that's really changed the situation quite a bit.

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