Why is there GPS on our phones?

Why does a phone have a camera? Why can you send text messages with phone? I could give a ton of these. Point is that some models have gps for convinience. It's a very usefull feature. It is not in those phones so 911 can track you. It is not in every phone. I have a phone that doesn't have one. This thread is bit fail.
Also cryhavoc source your stuff or retract that lie. We have enough bs information floating on the nets. No need to add to the pile.

A few years ago a woman borrowed my friend's [typical, cheap] cellphone to call the police. After she hung up the screen said "emergency mode" or something along those lines. Not exactly sure what it meant or what was actually going on with it.

Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the FCC mandated that by October 1, 2001 a quarter of all new cellphones be equipped with GPS functionality that would allow authorities to track the location of users. By the end of 2002, this became a mandatory requirement of all new cellphones.

Anyone got more details on that?

There's this too, from the "News of the World scandal" whistleblower who "didn't" suddenly die mysteriously...

www.guardian.co.uk...

Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use "pinging", which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

...He said he stood by everything he told the New York Times of "pinging"...

Originally posted by 1825114
There's this too, from the "News of the World scandal" whistleblower who "didn't" suddenly die mysteriously...

www.guardian.co.uk...

Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use "pinging", which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

...He said he stood by everything he told the New York Times of "pinging"...

edit on 30-7-2011 by 1825114 because: (no reason given)

Phone signals, in other words..triangulation. Not GPS tracking.

reply to post by RMFX1


So there are 2 ways for you to be tracked, triangulation which works with EVERY cell phone.

And then there are SMARTphones, which all contain GPS tracking capabilities, as well afaik, they record the GPS coordinates of the phone every time you take a picture.

And now, obviously, all that information can be hacked by G-men and civvies.

ETA: Throw your cell in the toilet if you know what's good for you.

Two reasons to get rid of the mobile phone.
Reason 1 I doubt they would put that info in the specs.
Reason 2 What a surprise!... Not !

I can't tell you how many times I have gotten from A to B with my Iphone.... no more need for a Tom Tom or a Garmin, just plug my phone up and tell it where I want to go.

"There's an App for that."

You'll have to forgive me, I used the word 'transmitter' when I should have used 'receiver'.

You wanted sources, you got 'em. Read them. All of them. If you have e911 service on your phone, your phone has GPS tracking capability. Your manual doesn't have to mention a single thing about GPS.

e911 service tracks by GPS

Full e911 capability by 2012

Background Info

Cell Phone Tracking

Americans Tracked by cell phone GPS

New Legislation

FBI tracking

ACLU fights warrantless GPS tracking

Covert GPS tracking

GPS Cell Phone Tracking

GPS Safety

Fortunately, the U. S. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has mandated a program called E911. E(nhanced) 911 requires the location of any cell phone used to call 911 can be determined to within 50 to 100 meters. The law took effect at the start of 2005. That means cell phone manufacturers have incorporated a GPS receiver in virtually every cell phone.

Your Cell Phone Is A Homing Device

U.S. Court rejects warrantless GPS Tracking

Stalkers exploit cell phone GPS

State Police GPS tracking

People Tracking

Wiki page about e911

I wonder how many people who posted in this thread saying their "cell phone doesn't have GPS" just realized their cell phone has GPS...

reply to post by guessing


I love posts like these.

To the paranoid people out there... Please explain why the government, or TPTB, have any intrrst at all in who you are and what you do?

They have more important people to stalk. The guy who lives down on 4th street in his parents basement arent even on the radar screen.

Innocently, the phones location and movements are used by tower software to select the best tower and manage traffic overload.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
reply to post by guessing

 

I love posts like these.

To the paranoid people out there... Please explain why the government, or TPTB, have any intrrst at all in who you are and what you do?

They have more important people to stalk. The guy who lives down on 4th street in his parents basement arent even on the radar screen.

I love posts like these.

You must not have seen what this forum is about.

Besides, there's much worse people out there than the government... And they're a bunch of Control Freaks that don't like Freedom. And that "guy who lives down on 4th street in his parents basement" IS on their radar screen. Especially if he's got a credit card. Or is someone's Ex. Or has an opinion different from The Bad Guys. You do know that some people in the Russian Mob used GPS to track a guy they put a hit on, right?

The Bad Guys are getting more use out of cell phone GPS tracking than the Good Guys.

The government at least is trying to catch Bad Guys, even if they are going about it wrong.

But you kinda missed the point of the thread.

Perhaps its so the ATS members who use their mobiles as modems and post anti Alien threads can be zapped from outer space?
Personally I only say pro Alien things .

reply to post by CryHavoc


Well it can tell you where you are (navigation), hence you can check where you are and tell the 911 operator where you are, that's why. At least that's part of it.

I got my first mobile phone about 10-11 years ago now. It was around the time companies started switching from analog signal to digital (1g to 2g I think). It was a verizon phone. It had a little icon up near the battery indicator bars that looked like crosshairs. That icon meant the gps tracking was enabled. There was no "gps navigation" on that phone. It just meant if I called a certain number they could offer me almost like a concierge service by pinpointing where I was with gps and recommending nearby hotels or restaurants and whatnot.

It was possible to shut the feature off. When I did that however, it was still active but supposedly only available to emergency services. My next few phones were with sprint pcs. They all had the exact same crosshairs icon that could be "shut off". None of them had satellite navigation either. It was the same type of location based features service.

Some people in this thread (I think) are confusing "my phone doesn't have satellite navigation" with "not all phones have a gps tracker". As far as I've always understood, they do.

No mine still doesn't. And probably not buying one that does anytime soon.

My phone's GPS system has saved me from being lost many, many times. I'm horrible with navigation.

I don't care if they can track me, not as if they'll find anything remotely interesting.

This sounds really interesting but there is no mention of what happens in other Countries though all this talk is about is to do with the US only.. (Sorry if it sounds like a rant)

I live in the country here in Australia and I know for sure that the Police use Triangulation NOT GPS to locate anyone as well as their computer network (here in state of Victoria it is called LEAP)

As far I understand is that GPS system is used for helping one find somewhere.

Originally posted by Embertail
My phone's GPS system has saved me from being lost many, many times. I'm horrible with navigation.

I don't care if they can track me, not as if they'll find anything remotely interesting.

I had to drive in the remote parts of the Florida panhandle and if it wasn't for GPS I would have been completely lost. I had never really used it before that trip but my god it was awesome to have. The side roads were so sudden and barely labeled that I would have missed many of them without the navi app on my phone

Worth noting that to use actual GPS, the receiver must have a clear line of site to at least a few satellites, the more the better. Unlikely that if you were locked in the trunk of your car you'd actually get any GPS signal.

Triangulating the radio signal off the cell phone towers happens a LOT more often, and now days in smart phones, I'd wager the software automatically switches back and forth between radio and GPS for location services as either are available, without the user ever noticing.

My 4 year old BlackBerry had Google maps, but there's no GPS chip in the phone. It does it all by radio triangulation. Not as accurate as real GPS, but gets me within a few blocks of where I am, sometimes better.