Mobile phone tracking explained

Mobile phone tracking is a process for identifying the location of a mobile phone, whether stationary or moving. Localization may be effected by a number of technologies, such as the multilateration of radio signals between (several) cell towers of the network and the phone or by simply using GPS tracking. To locate a mobile phone using multilateration of mobile radio signals, the phone must emit at least the idle signal to contact nearby antenna towers and does not require an active call. The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is based on the phone's signal strength to nearby antenna masts.[1]

Mobile positioning may be used for location-based services that disclose the actual coordinates of a mobile phone. Telecommunication companies use this to approximate the location of a mobile phone, and thereby also its user.[2]

Technology

The location of a mobile phone can be determined using several complementary technologies. Modern phones typically use a hybrid positioning system that combines these methods to provide the fastest and most accurate location possible.

Handset-based positioning

This is the most common method, where the device itself calculates its own position.

Network-based positioning

This method relies on the cellular network infrastructure to determine the phone's location. The advantage is that it can be implemented non-intrusively by the service provider without any special software on the handset.[5]

Data transmission in applications

For any location-based service to function, the position data calculated by the phone (whether from GPS, Wi-Fi, or the network) must be transmitted to a server. The phone's built-in cellular modem sends this telemetry data over the mobile network (e.g., 4G/5G).

This "phone-as-a-sensor" model is the foundation for many modern on-demand services and is a key part of fleet digitalization. Applications for food delivery, courier services, and ride-hailing (like Uber or Lyft) rely on the phone's transmitted location data to function. The phone itself acts as the GPS tracking unit for the service's fleet management platform, allowing it to dispatch the nearest driver, provide customers with a real-time track and trace map, and calculate billing. The reliability of these services depends on this constant data connection; for example, the shutdown of older 3G networks required many commercial services to ensure their devices were 4G or 5G capable to maintain connectivity.[7]

Interception

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies conduct cellphone surveillance by intercepting and collecting data, including location data, with devices and methods including IMSI-catchers, such as the Stingray phone tracker.[8]

Operational purpose

In order to route calls to a phone, cell towers listen for a signal sent from the phone and negotiate which tower is best able to communicate with the phone. As the phone changes location, the antenna towers monitor the signal, and the phone is "roamed" to an adjacent tower as appropriate. By comparing the relative signal strength from multiple antenna towers, a general location of a phone can be roughly determined. Other means make use of the antenna pattern, which supports angular determination and phase discrimination.

Newer phones may also allow the tracking of the phone even when turned on but not active in a telephone call. This results from the roaming procedures that perform hand-over of the phone from one base station to another.[9]

Consumer applications

A phone's location can be shared with friends and family, posted to a public website, recorded locally, or shared with other users of a smartphone app. The inclusion of GPS receivers on smartphones has made geographical apps nearly ubiquitous on these devices. Specific applications include:

In January 2019, the location of her iPhone as determined by her sister helped Boston police find kidnapping victim Olivia Ambrose.[10]

Privacy

Locating or positioning touches upon delicate privacy issues, since it enables someone to check where a person is without the person's consent.[11] Strict ethics and security measures are strongly recommended for services that employ positioning.

In 2012 Malte Spitz held a TED talk[12] on the issue of mobile phone privacy in which he showcased his own stored data that he received from Deutsche Telekom after suing the company. He described the data, which consists of 35,830 lines of data collected during the span of Germany's data retention at the time, saying, "This is six months of my life [...] You can see where I am, when I sleep at night, what I'm doing." He partnered up with ZEIT Online and made his information publicly available in an interactive map which allows users to watch his entire movements during that time in fast-forward. Spitz concluded that technology consumers are the key to challenging privacy norms in today's society who "have to fight for self determination in the digital age."[13] [14]

China

The Chinese government has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.[15] Aggregate presence of mobile phone users could be tracked in a privacy-preserving fashion.[16] This location data was used to locate protesters during protests in Beijing in 2022.[17]

Europe

In Europe most countries have a constitutional guarantee on the secrecy of correspondence, and location data obtained from mobile phone networks is usually given the same protection as the communication itself.[18] [19] [20]

United States

In the United States, there is a limited constitutional guarantee on the privacy of telecommunications through the Fourth Amendment.[21] [22] [23] [24] [25] The use of location data is further limited by statutory,[26] administrative,[27] and case law.[21] [28] Police access of seven days of a citizen's location data is unquestionably enough to be a fourth amendment search requiring both probable cause and a warrant.[21] [29]

In November 2017, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that the government violates the Fourth Amendment by accessing historical records containing the physical locations of cellphones without a search warrant.[30]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Tracking a suspect by any mobile phone: Tracking SIM and handset . BBC News . 2005-08-03 . 2010-01-02.
  2. http://to.swang.googlepages.com/ICC2008LBSforMobilessimplifiedR2.pdf "Location Based Services for Mobiles: Technologies and Standards“
  3. Web site: Q&A on Location Data. apple.com. Apple. 2013-03-08.
  4. Ibrahim. M.. Youssef. M.. 2012-01-01. CellSense: An Accurate Energy-Efficient GSM Positioning System. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. 61. 1. 286–296. 10.1109/TVT.2011.2173771. 0018-9545. 1110.3425. 14790516 .
  5. http://emits.sso.esa.int/emits-doc/1-5200-RD24-Mobile-positioning-using-wireless-networks.pdf Mobile Positioning Using Wireless Networks
  6. Book: Laitinen. H.. Lahteenmaki. J.. Nordstrom. T.. IEEE VTS 53rd Vehicular Technology Conference, Spring 2001. Proceedings (Cat. No.01CH37202) . Database correlation method for GSM location . 2001. Rhodes, Greece. IEEE. 4. 2504–2508. 10.1109/VETECS.2001.944052. 9780780367289. 195858053 .
  7. Web site: Will The 3G Sunset Leave Supply Chains In The Dark? . Forbes . August 3, 2023 . October 7, 2025.
  8. Slobogin . Christopher . Brayne . Sarah . 2023 . Surveillance Technologies and Constitutional Law . Annual Review of Criminology . 6 . 219–240 . 10.1146/annurev-criminol-030421-035102 . 2572-4568 . 10704392 . 38074421.
  9. Web site: Roving Bug in Cell Phones Used By FBI to Eavesdrop on Syndicate. The Chicago Syndicate -BLOG. Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache. 6 December 2008.
  10. Web site: A common smartphone feature helped find missing woman - The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com.
  11. Web site: Waxman . Seth . Brief for technology companies as amici curiae in support of neither party . scotusblog . Supreme Court of the United States . 23 June 2018.
  12. Web site: Your phone company is watching - TEDGlobal 2012 . ted.com . June 2012 . 26 January 2016.
  13. News: Malte Spitz's TED Talk Takes On Mobile Phone Privacy Debate (VIDEO) . Huffington Post . 25 July 2012 . 26 January 2016 . Fitzgerald, Britney.
  14. News: Betrayed by our own data . ZEIT . 10 March 2011 . 26 January 2016 . Biermann, Kai. Die Zeit .
  15. News: China plans to track cellphone users, sparking human rights concerns. https://web.archive.org/web/20110624100746/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2011/03/china_said_it_may_begin.html. dead. June 24, 2011. Cecilia Kang. The Washington Post. March 3, 2011.
  16. D. Quercia, Ilias Leontiadis, Liam McNamara, Cecilia Mascolo, Jon Crowcroft (2011). SpotME If You Can: Randomized Responses for Location Obfuscation on Mobile Phones. IEEE ICDCS
  17. Web site: Xiong . Nectar Gan, Yong . 2022-12-02 . Chinese police are using cellphone data to track down protesters . 2022-12-03 . CNN . en.
  18. Book: Spyropoulos, Philippos K.. Constitutional law in Greece. 2009. Kluwer Law International. Fortsakis, ThĂŠodore.. 978-90-411-2878-2. Netherlands. 383848443.
  19. "Chapter X, Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens, Article 128". 1936 Constitution of the USSR. The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.
  20. Roxana Maria Roba. The Legal Protection of the Secrecy of Correspondence, Curentul "Juridic" (archived), 2009, number 1, Tîrgu-Mureş, Romania.
  21. . 583 . U.S. . . 22 June 2018 . https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/16-402 . June 22, 2018 . The Government's acquisition of Carpenter's cell-site records was a Fourth Amendment search..
  22. . 573 . U.S. . . 25 June 2014 . https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-132 . June 23, 2018 . Required a warrant to search mobile telecommunications devices..
  23. . 565 . U.S. . 400 . . 23 January 2012 . https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/10-1259 . June 23, 2018 . Limited use of GPS devices [such as in a cell phone] to track movements..
  24. . 389 . U.S. . 347 . . 18 December 18, 1967 . https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/389/347 . June 23, 2018 . (a) that an enclosed telephone booth is an area where, like a home, and unlike a field, a person has a constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy; (b) that electronic as well as physical intrusion into a place that is in this sense private may constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment; and (c) that an invasion of a constitutionally protected area by federal authorities is, as the Court has long held, presumptively unreasonable in the absence of a search warrant..
  25. Ex parte Jackson . 96 . U.S. . 727 . . 1878 . https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/96/727/case.html . June 23, 2018 . Letters and sealed packages subject to letter postage in the mail can be opened and examined only under like warrant, issued upon similar oath or affirmation, particularly describing the thing to be seized, as is required when papers are subjected to search in one's own household. The constitutional guaranty of the right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to their papers, thus closed against inspection, wherever they may be..
  26. Web site: Stored Communications Act (18 U.S. Code § 2703(d) - Required disclosure of customer communications or records). Requirements for Court Order.— A court order for disclosure under subsection (b) or (c) may be issued by any court that is a court of competent jurisdiction and shall issue only if the governmental entity offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation. In the case of a State governmental authority, such a court order shall not issue if prohibited by the law of such State. A court issuing an order pursuant to this section, on a motion made promptly by the service provider, may quash or modify such order, if the information or records requested are unusually voluminous in nature or compliance with such order otherwise would cause an undue burden on such provider..
  27. Web site: 47 CFR Subpart E - Privacy Act Regulations. LII / Legal Information Institute.
  28. . 468 . U.S. . 705 . . 3 July 1984 . https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/468/705 . June 22, 2018 . the use of a beeper to conduct surveillance on Karo and his accomplices constituted an unlawful search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment..
  29. News: Liptak . Adam . Adam Liptak . 23 June 2018 . Warrant Required for Cellphone Tracking Data . print . en . CLXII . 58,002 . National . . A1, A16 . 23 June 2018 . “We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. ... “Mapping a cellphone's location over the course of 127 days provides an all-encompassing record of the holder's whereabouts,” he wrote, going on to quote from an earlier opinion. “As with GPS information, the time-stamped data provides an intimate window into a person's life, revealing not only his particular movements, but through them his ‘familial, political, professional, religious and sexual associations.'” ... “cellphones and the services they provide are ‘such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life' that carrying one is indispensable to participation in modern society.”.
  30. Keyaerts. K.. 2018. United States ∙ Carpenter v US: Supreme Court Rules Police Need a Warrant to Obtain Cell-Site Location Information. European Data Protection Law Review. 4. 4. 525–530. 10.21552/edpl/2018/4/17. 2364-2831. subscription.

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