your work can track you to the strip joint via cell phone

it appears that some cell phones have tracking capabilities built into them:

news.com.com...

so if you stop off at a bar after work, should your employer be able to track that??

[edit on 9/26/04 by spangbr]

Unless you were a priest or pastor, and your employer was a church, why would your employer care?

When your supposed to be "at work" or "in the field" during bussines hours maybe?

I thought all Digital Cell Phones had tracking capabilities built in.



Yes! If your boss is some kind of perverted weirdo or something, what will
they think of next.

The tracking is done by triangulating the signal between towers, and any cell phone can be triangulated by its signal. It will be picked up stronger/weaker by towers at different distances and this allows the location to be found, just like GPS systems. Simple trigonometry.

I don't know how often this is used, but it is definately legal now with the Patriot Act in place (in the USA).

or you could just leave your work cell phone at the office when not working

Can't track it when it's not on you... and while you are on the clock, the boss has every right to know what he's paying for.

Yes Sir....

Mine does.... I just received a new company cell phone and it has GPS tracking capabilities....

I don't think my company would use it though, besides if they did, I wouldn't care. I don't do anything that I'm not supposed to while on the job, well okay, golf sometimes, but the bosses are usually with me *S*

really, who would? if ur employer is the govt, and ur a suspect, then yeah. but, really, who else would go throught he trouble? its really not worth it, not even a single bit. sides, they probably hit you with a lawsuit for invasion of privacy or something.

I wonder how many wives will all of a sudden be giving their hubby's new cell phones!



Jemison

it is true cell phones are able to be tracked by a GPS but if your cell is in your name then only you can track it or atleast thats the way its supposed to work.

Once again, they are triangulated by the signals from the recieving towers. Special phones may be outfitted with GPC recievers which transmit that data to the towers, but GPS satelliltes most certainly do not do ANY tracking. They are broadcasters. A GPS system is not needed at all for this to work.

Two issues:

1) Cell phones (even the ones w/o the GPS chips in them) can be tracked via triangulation of signal. It's not entirely accurate, but the technology has been around for ages.

2) Though most new cell phones are being sold with GPS chips, software allowing customers to utilize the chips to track owned phones is not yet available rendering this technology ineffective.

If you know of tracking software out there that any of the major cell phone manufacturers or service companies are offering, please share. If not, you're jumping the gun on the potential spying associated with these chips.

the software is right there in the article. here is another link to it:

www.xora.com...

This software is only for Nextel subscribers. A far cry from being widely available considering the number of cell providers out there. Sure, it's on the way. It's not ubiquitous yet, though.

the post of the software was in response to your post indicating that the software doesnt exist. the point is that it does and it is only a matter of time before this or similar services become everyday type things.

Actually, I think the GPS enabled phones are for use in the 911 system. I heard a good talk yesterday concerning the need for address ranges on all roads which is the project I am working on for my state so even when a call comes in from a cell with lat/lon, the dispatcher will give the officer or medic an actual address location. Something to the order of 1000 adresses per mile or every 5.28 feet is what we're doing if the county doesn't already have an address guide. I don't really think many companies will pay for this option even if it were available to them. For now, its all for 911, homeland security and such. Even phones without GPS can be tracked now using towers. This is called network tracking and its average error is + or - 1000 US Survey Feet. Good enough to get help to someone if they need it. The idea of GPS in phones is to work in conjunction with that to reduce that error.

1 in 30 ppl in my town work for my employer. Not to mention all the family that lives off the ppl who work for my employer. So my job can track to the strip club because if it was for my employer, the strip club most likely wouldn't be there. But the girls there dont look that good(except 1) anyways so I only go when people from work go out. And that is just one of the bars along the way.

I worked for T-Mobile corporate as well as T-Mobile engineering, so I would like to clear up a few things...
1. Yes, you can locate a mobile phone via triangulation... but the accuracy is to within around 100 yards. You can always tell your boss that you werent at the strip club, but at a restraunt next door to it(eating with a client..) . Once,I had my phone stolen and the morons left it on. I went to the engineering dept. and had them triangulate the phone the next time it registered with a tower. They did it, but because the location pointed to an apartment complex, it was impossible to find. Errrrr... Anyway....
You can always tell your boss that you werent at the strip club, but at a restraunt(eating with a client..)

2. Most phones do not have a GPS chip in them, in fact, only a handful of models have GPS capability. Even those that do use A-GPS(assisted GPS), which means that they need assistance from the mobile network as well as satallite info to give a precise location. Maybe the person who said most phones have GPS meant GPRS(which is the data transmission standard for GSM)

the govt can raise the accuracy a great deal if they want to....

Back when I had my service through Sprint PCS (doesn't work where I live now), I had a Nokia with GPS and it had the option for me to manully tell it to allow position information to be sent to all or just to emergency services (911). Now, I guess a company could have this setting locked to allow all but some may not be that thorough.

I think most systems are using network positioning with the option to use a-gps if possible but from the State GIS Conference last week in KY, I learned that 50% of the state's 911 calls now originate from a wireless handset. Thats the big push right now. This position is being logged on a CAD map which associates it with address ranges so the dispatcher can locate someone even if a physical address isn't given....ie..and ramp onto the Interstate or someone on an ATV riding on a forestry road. All roads in KY are being mapped and addressed, public, private, whatever.