Mobile carriers can get your GPS location • Hacker News Board

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#351

Post by cpncrunch » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 4:56 AM UTC

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #315

_heimdall wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Court approved warrants are pretty fundamental to how our legal system works and how some level of accountability is maintained. That system isn't perfect by any stretch, but removing it unlocks Pandoras box and I'm not sure we'd be better off without it. As it stands, a cop has to get a warrant to enter and search your home, for example. If we remove that hurdle because we also don't trust the courts then we just ha…

Have you been paying attention to the news lately where Trump is weaponizing the court system to a point where ethical AGs are resigning instead of complying?

Thats not an argument to get rid of the courts. Quite the opposite. Trump is trying to sideline them, but ultimately it will fail becausethe population wont accept it. The US isnt China or Russia, and Trump may have to learn that.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#352

Post by cpncrunch » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 4:57 AM UTC

p-e-w wrote: post #344

cpncrunch wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how should it work?

With fundamental rules, applicable to all situations, limiting what information courts can demand. There are things so private that they should be out of reach of the state regardless of what justification someone can come up with.

Which things in particular?

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#353

Post by jb1991 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 4:58 AM UTC

Pro tip to the author: it’s not necessary to write “It’s worth noting”, this just weakens the prose. If it is worth noting, just note it. No need to add additional commentary.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#354

Post by jb1991 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:01 AM UTC

dfc wrote: post #211

AlexanderYamanu wrote: post #41

euhm, well. 112 programmer here. There are multiple levels. Cell tower triangulation come in automatically from providers. But they are only in tower numbers. They might be wrongly entered by engineers, hence the confirming question about where you are. Second is subscription information, as in registered address. Chances are if called from nearby your address, you are at your address. Next is a text to your phone nu…

Did you read the article or are you merely responding to the title? The article begins by acknowledging triangulation and then moving on to the point of the article. The article is about commands built into the UMTS and LTE specs for requesting GPS from the device. Your comment seems to be about everything but the main point of the article.

The hacker news guidelines forbid you from suggesting someone has not read the article. Please do not participate in this forum with such conduct.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#355

Post by jam0wal » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:04 AM UTC

pro tip, you are using a phone, the carriers know where you are. In a call or not. Admittedly sending the GPS location (or other) adds to the footprint they have of you, but get real, 30 sec for the intelligence services to locate you is only this slow for movies.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#356

Post by raw_anon_1111 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:04 AM UTC

cpncrunch wrote: post #351

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been paying attention to the news lately where Trump is weaponizing the court system to a point where ethical AGs are resigning instead of complying?

Thats not an argument to get rid of the courts. Quite the opposite. Trump is trying to sideline them, but ultimately it will fail becausethe population wont accept it. The US isnt China or Russia, and Trump may have to learn that.

The population is accepting it right now. 40% of the people still approve of everything Trump is doing.

If you have 10 friends and you ask them what they want to eat for dinner and 6 say let’s go to a Mexican restaurant and 4 say let’s kill Bob and eat him, you still need to worry about your friend group.

Right this second ICE agents are killing people with impunity and police for the longest have had qualified immunity to kill people unjustly.

The country voted for this knowing exactly what they were going to get. Don’t believe the Michelle Obama “this is not who we are” this is who this country has always been

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#357

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:13 AM UTC

mlfreeman wrote: post #133

spwa4 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How that works is simple: there are regulations that force that the microphone used for calling is directly connected to the "baseband", which is under control of the carrier. It has to be, because of AT&T's argument: ONE misbehaving baseband can make cell phones inoperable in an area that's up to a kilometer in diameter. So AT&T's cell towers "need" to be able to send out a signal that permanently disables a phone's…

Please provide links to the relevant regulations from an actual government website such as eCFR in the US ( https://www.ecfr.gov/ )

The regulation would likely come from an industry body like the GSM alliance or some other thing that gates certification without which carriers won't allow the phone model onto their network, not governments.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#358

Post by Alive-in-2025 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:29 AM UTC

Forgeties79 wrote: post #320

cpncrunch wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should it not be available with a valid court order as well?

Slavery also took advantage of valid court orders. “Because it’s the law” is not enough. Our rights should always be the biased stance.

Doubly so when the "law" is oligarchs and Ice.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#359

Post by Alive-in-2025 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:30 AM UTC

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #356

cpncrunch wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not an argument to get rid of the courts. Quite the opposite. Trump is trying to sideline them, but ultimately it will fail becausethe population wont accept it. The US isnt China or Russia, and Trump may have to learn that.

The population is accepting it right now. 40% of the people still approve of everything Trump is doing. If you have 10 friends and you ask them what they want to eat for dinner and 6 say let’s go to a Mexican restaurant and 4 say let’s kill Bob and eat him, you still need to worry about your friend group. Right this second ICE agents are killing people with impunity and police for the longest have had qualified immun…

The country voted for it but it wasn't a rational choice. Half the country lives in insane false world, pushed by Fox news. But it's a near-majority every election.

Re: Mobile carriers can get your GPS location

#360

Post by Alive-in-2025 » Sun, Feb 01, 2026, 5:33 AM UTC

Ms-J wrote: post #325

p-e-w wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don’t believe is that courts should have the power to force anything to happen just by signing a piece of paper.

Thank you for sharing this fact. Warrants can be had for almost any situation with creative phrasing from who is asking for it. Warrants are so easy to obtain and so abused it is required that we all do something differently.

They aren't that hard to get, yet Trump's warriors ice never seem to have warrants signed by a judge. Going back to being able to ignore fake warrants not signed by a judge without them killing you would be a big step forward.