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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

#81

Post by criddell »

alistairSH wrote: post #75
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving (Full disclosure: have never driven in the USA), but without wishing to sound like a know-all, how about sticking to the speed limit? I've been dinged exactly twice for speeding since getting my licence almost exactly 30 years ago this month. No points in either case. It's not hard, honest. My wife might disagree, but her licence, he…

how about sticking to the speed limit? Because the speed limit in much of the US is below the “natural” speed of that roadway. We have highways where 80+mph is the norm, but the posted limited can be anywhere from 55-70mph (I-95 along the east coast). Driving the speed limit actually becomes dangerous. At this point, speed enforcement becomes a hit-or-miss affair, where you’re at the mercy of the police officer. Bett…

I think in most places, the speed limit is set to the 80th percentile speed. If there is a road where people routinely drive much faster on, you might want to ask for your county to do a speed study on that road.

In some places, you may be able to use the lack of an up-to-date speed study as a defense against a speeding charge.

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

#82

Post by kube-system »

car_analogy wrote: post #79
kube-system wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it is mostly handled by the chipset firmware these days, and no options are available to disable it because it is a legal requirement. But even if you were able to disable the functionality, the carriers towers can triangulate you.

It's revolting that we've allowed functionality to betray its owner to be legally mandated into "our" devices. It's no surprise that they keep this so very discreet. Edit: I am specifically referring to the e911 ability to without owner interaction or knowledge send GPS coordinates, not to network-side triangulation, or even to sending GPS coordinates when the owner initiates a 911 call.

I remember seeing it talked about on local news when it was being implemented. It was normal to list “e911 support” on the outside of phone boxes when it was a new feature. Just checked my desk drawer and it is listed on the box of one of my HTC phones and one of my Samsung phones.

E911 can also use triangulation which is isn’t “in” your phone anyway. It’s possible with any type of radio transmission due to plain old physics.

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

#84

Post by ghaff »

sharken wrote: post #34
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving (Full disclosure: have never driven in the USA), but without wishing to sound like a know-all, how about sticking to the speed limit? I've been dinged exactly twice for speeding since getting my licence almost exactly 30 years ago this month. No points in either case. It's not hard, honest. My wife might disagree, but her licence, he…

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.

I haven't used (non-adaptive) cruise control in years. I find that a lot of the time in the Northeast US roads are busy enough that you have to be constantly dropping out of cruise control or end up driving in ways that are suboptimal other than for keeping the cruise control active. To be honest, I just stopped using it at some point and just don't think to use it even when it's a match for conditions.

When I get adaptive cruise control--presumably when I eventually get a new car--I may well change my tune.

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

#86

Post by oneplane »

alistairSH wrote: post #75
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving (Full disclosure: have never driven in the USA), but without wishing to sound like a know-all, how about sticking to the speed limit? I've been dinged exactly twice for speeding since getting my licence almost exactly 30 years ago this month. No points in either case. It's not hard, honest. My wife might disagree, but her licence, he…

how about sticking to the speed limit? Because the speed limit in much of the US is below the “natural” speed of that roadway. We have highways where 80+mph is the norm, but the posted limited can be anywhere from 55-70mph (I-95 along the east coast). Driving the speed limit actually becomes dangerous. At this point, speed enforcement becomes a hit-or-miss affair, where you’re at the mercy of the police officer. Bett…

Since when is a speed limit not a rule/law but a 'feeling' for a 'natural' speed? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That essentially just escalates as everyones 'naturally' speeds up as a herd and then the whole point of having rules is moot.

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

#87

Post by function_seven »

VistaBrokeMyPC wrote: post #66
cjrp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t be the only one thinking “so how do you build a radar detector detector detector?”

It's basically just a more sensitive radar detector. Instead of picking up the main frequencies radar guns use, it picks up the harmonics emitted by the oscillating crystal inside the radar detectors. All radar detectors leak on harmonic frequencies of the frequency they pick up on, it's just a matter of how much. Those cheap Walmart radar detectors leak so badly they detect each other. Pricier ones are more sophisti…

Could one build an SDR version of a radar detector that doesn't have a detectable oscillator? (Or, if it does, it's oscillating at a much higher frequency?)

I'm no RF guy, so I'm clueless on this stuff. But my understanding is that SDRs aren't radio receivers in the traditional sense. That's the whole "SD" part of it, the device scoops up everything and FFTs it or something.

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

#88

Post by woodruffw »

casion wrote: post #37
ZoomerCretin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the effects of driving at these speeds, I'd say the legal absurdity is the other 49 states not having similar punishments for people who drive at these incredibly dangerous speeds. An enormous amount of people die or acquire permanent, life-altering disabilities at the hands of people who were speeding and crashed.

This kind of absolute thinking is not helpful. The US is a HUGE place. Each location has different driving conditions, types of roads, driving habits etc... Affluence also factors in significantly both on a community level and personal level. Driving 80mph through a small town with significant environmental debris on the roads where everyone is driving trucks from the 60s? That should be a felony. Driving 80mph on a…

> but my car going 10mph over is SIGNIFICANTLY less dangerous to the public than that hoopty going the speed limit

To the driving public, specifically. Pedestrians and cyclists will still be goop on your windshield 50 feet into your 100 foot braking.

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

#89

Post by ghaff »

1MachineElf wrote: post #62
jason-phillips wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see, thanks. I suppose I too live in a pro-cop area then. The police, judges and county attorneys all know each other and work together quite a bit. I know them and they know me. I suppose the way I handle the situation is to not break the law and not treat them like we inherently have an adversarial relationship. From my perspective, having the local community support first responders is a good thing and works ver…

Last time I was in Texas, it was legal to drive 80 miles an hour on certain highways. If you needed to make a u-turn while driving on the highway, you could pull into special areas in the median of highways to make those turns. The same places highway patrol often use to sit, wait, and monitor traffic. Both of those things are illegal in Virginia.

I don't remember what the exact number was (maybe 75mph) but I had a rental for a business trip out west somewhere--maybe Arizona--and it turned out the car had a governor set to whatever the number was--which at the time was presumably significantly over a lot of speed limits but was right at the speed limit where I was driving. It was very annoying as the car would suddenly drop the throttle and slow down. Only time I've ever seen that though there may be governors set to speeds I just don't hit in other cases.

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

#90

Post by woodruffw »

hammock wrote: post #17
jason-phillips wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? What does "pro-cop" mean in this geographical context and why do I not want to be arrested here versus somewhere else (assuming I wanted to be arrested)?

Cops get more benefit of the doubt there than anyplace I’ve seen. And the cops, prosecutors and judges are in close coordination.

Just for maximum pedantry: it's normal for cops and prosecutors to coordinate (it's their job). Americans frequently treat state attorneys as if they're not fundamentally "in law enforcement," which is absolutely not the case.

But I do agree with you about Virginia (from personal experience as well), and there should be a firewall between the police and actual trial judges.

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