Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Track People Using Their Mobile Phones

Posted by timothy on from the double-edged dept.

Richard W.M. Jones writes "A couple of new services have been rolled out in the UK recently which allow you to track people when they have their mobile phones turned on. Mapminder states 'It's important to know where your loved ones are for your own peace of mind'. 192.com asks 'Do you want to know where your children are?'. Of course the police have been able to do this for a long time, and evidence from mobile phone positions has been used in high-profile court cases in the UK. Silicon.com has an article."

3 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. the moral is by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    if you're going to whack someone, first hide your phone in a restaurant a couple miles away....then you can "prove" you weren't at the crime scene.

  2. Amazing how the truth comes out by rebeka+thomas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Back around 1999 & 2000 there were rumours/news stories about the possibility of being tracked by mobile phones, and much discussion about how it wasn't really technically possible. Phone companies denied it could be done, many law enforcement agencies denied they used it (although some were forthcoming enough to say more). The general consensus was that it was something out of the XFiles.

    Now it's commercial a scant 3 years later. Who'd have guessed.

    --
    RST
  3. This can save lives too, you know.... by menscher · · Score: 5, Interesting
    During a family vacation in New England, we were driving on some windy mountain road somewhere near the border of NH and VT. We came across an accident (motorcycler ran into a tree). Well, there were lots of tourists there, and all had cell phones. But nobody knew where we were (not even which state, since we were near the border). Spent about 15 minutes arguing with operators who wouldn't send an ambulance without a specific location, while the guy lay bleeding on the pavement.

    That was about 10 years ago, but certainly shows how cell-phone signal triangulation can save lives.