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Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

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Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#191

Post by lucb1e »

sneak wrote: post #149
DevX101 wrote: post #134

I'm assuming the police is primarily using GPS to prove guilt, but are there any recorded cases of someone using GPS to "prove" their innocence, as an alibi?

In a lot of cases by the time you learn you are being accused, the data is no longer retained/available from the carriers.

As part of a GDPR data access request, my mobile ISP denied having access to data such as which cell towers I am or have been connected to. Wasn't sure what to make of that. They are a virtual provider but, like, surely if the police comes knocking they suddenly find a way to that data... or does the police not knock at theirs but at the network operator's? Is the virtual operator then not the data controller, should I send access requests to suppliers? But then the data controller is not required to give a list of suppliers, just a list of 'categories' of third parties they share my data with... so that doesn't really add up.

I know a thing or two about GDPR but it's still complex enough that I don't know what my rights / their obligations are in this case.

The best I could figure, my virtual operator was lying to me about not having my location data 24/7 recorded, but I'd be interested if anyone can tell me more.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#192

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

cryptonector wrote: post #133
cycomanic wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps you are in Europe, where speed limits are generally just the natural speed for the roads they're posted on, and the roads are designed for natural speeds that are appropriate for their uses. Lucky you, if so. What are you talking about? With the exception of Germany all countries in Europe have maximum speed limits and I have no idea what you mean by natural speeds. Sweden which has highways that are in bet…

Your roads are often designed with natural speed control devices. Things like making them narrow, or lining them with trees, etc.

Reading your comment makes me think you’ve never driven in Europe whatsoever. Driving on your typical E road (say E6 or E4 in Sweden) is no different in design than any US interstate. In fact, driving on regional highways is mostly roughly equivalent in design with USA state highways, except roundabouts are often in place of street lights.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#193

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

neither_color wrote: post #177
worik wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits. In the realm of ego orientated commenting, this one really stands out. I do not want to put my life in your unregulated hands. I want you regulated to hell and back when you operate a tonne of steel at thirty metres per second heading in my genera…

Are you familiar with the autobahn? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn Parts of highway with unrestricted speed are not only possible, they're not particularly dangerous either.

It's a limited access highway, not an ordinary road with at grade intersections and inadequate sight lines.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#194

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

cycomanic wrote: post #126
cryptonector wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American highways for decades now have been designed for very high speeds, often 100mph or more, but the speed limits are set much much lower than that. Perhaps you are in Europe, where speed limits are generally just the natural speed for the roads they're posted on, and the roads are designed for natural speeds that are appropriate for their uses. Lucky you, if so. Here in the U.S., speed limits are set to give pol…

> Perhaps you are in Europe, where speed limits are generally just the natural speed for the roads they're posted on, and the roads are designed for natural speeds that are appropriate for their uses. Lucky you, if so. What are you talking about? With the exception of Germany all countries in Europe have maximum speed limits and I have no idea what you mean by natural speeds. Sweden which has highways that are in bet…

Some highways in Sweden go up to 130 kph. E4 in Halland is an example. Still not 85mph but close.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#195

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

Wistar wrote: post #78
sharken wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A modern car with cruise control, either adaptive or not, will make the task of keeping to the speed limit a breeze. The only improvement would be that the car always knew the speed limit for any stretch of road.

Many modern cars have traffic sign recognition systems that extract the speed limit. The BMW system is fairly amazing to watch work as the speed limit display changes juuuust as you pass the sign and are surprisingly good at reading signs that are even partially obscured. Although I can't remember exactly which cars feed the detected speed limit into their adaptive cruise control systems, I think some of the Range Ro…

When I was driving in the EU I had a car that used gps to pull the limit (but never actually enforced that you followed it). It was really cool to hop on the Autobahn and see a symbol for none pop up in the indicator. It looked like a nonsmoking sign without the cigarette in it.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#196

Post by devoutsalsa »

warning26 wrote: post #137
woodruffw wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone who's extraordinarily sympathetic to journalists. But I don't think there's really any excuse for going 93 miles an hour on a country road marked for 55, as this author did. Should he have been sent to jail for it? I don't think so. But it's remarkable how acceptable that behavior seems to be.

Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits.

Speed limits exist because stupid people exist. When I was young, I was stupid. I thought it’d be cool to count how many streets I’d on which I’d driven at least 100kph. Soon after that I got into an accident because I was going too fast and couldn’t slow down in time.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#197

Post by nimbius »

Trying to steer this thread back on topic. This article is incorrect. Cellular services aren't polling GPS data from the device, they're using imei and subscriber identification triangulation from the towers which the FBI and law enforcement overlay on google maps.

It works with big providers albeit I feel like this parlour trick becomes tougher if your target is using a resell carrier like mint or cricket.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#198

Post by multjoy »

jameshart wrote: post #165
tomc1985 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 101 through Sonoma/Humboldt/Mendocino counties is, at some places, a 2-lane highway weaving its way through a twisty curvy Redwood forest at 55-65mph, and up to 75mph when it's a six-lane highway. And here in Southern California I regularly get away with 80-85mph in front of CA highway patrol. Most places I've been to in the US seem to consider 5-10 over the limit to be acceptable. I have even heard of freeways i…

For someone so ready to leap to conclusions, you don’t sound particularly informed about British attitudes to road speed (notably, Britain still uses mph, not km/h). You might be surprised to discover that outside built up areas in the UK the national speed limit on an undivided road is 60mph. Not an undivided highway - an undivided road . Here’s an example of a random British B road with a 60mph speed limit: https:/…

And here's an unclassified road with a 60mph limit: https://goo.gl/maps/LNmtw44z8BQXatXu9

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#199

Post by woodruffw »

1123581321 wrote: post #162
woodruffw wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t say that I did know. It’s a general point, one that I can make by pointing to any particular example of reckless driving (of which there are many, including ones I have been personally subjected to.)

Yes, you did. You said you didn’t think there was any excuse for going 93 in a 55.

The context is important: the author describes their joyride through a collection of twisty backroads in Virginia. It’s not the speed itself that makes it inexcusable.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#200

Post by charcircuit »

stefan_ wrote: post #188
1123581321 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t know which speeds are actually reckless. Using speed limits to inform your opinion is circular. It depends on the design and condition of the road, the quality and features of the car, and traffic, weather and environmental conditions.

Well we have the stats and at 30mph already a pedestrian has a low chance of survival. So there is a perfectly good case to be made that just exceeding 20mph is reckless. Maybe we just limit cars there, then at least we are not "circularly informed", whatever that means.

Pedestrians don't walk on country roads.
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