Re: Cell Phone Terror - problems

[jjf <xdaydreamx@gmx.net>]

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Things aren't quite as bleak as this. First of all, there is a barrier between the government and your cell phone; unless you bought your phone from the secret police, then they need access to the hardware of your cell phone company first before they can find you. Secondly, the method used to pin-point cell phones at the moment is called "triangulation": here, the source of a signal is located by measuring it's distance to at least three points in space (three signal towers). This is only an approximation though and certainly doesn't work to the inch. Precision depends on the density of the signal towers. 

What is far more scary is the fact that many people have proposed that every cell phone be fitted with a GPS system, allegedly to be able to come to the rescue of people in distress more easily. Also, the next generation of cell phones is going to have a far greater range of features, which will include such vital functions as shops being able to locate your presence when you go past and send you bargain offers to entice you to come in. 

A recent article in the German weekly "Der Spiegel" reports on a young inventor who has come up with a way of modifying existing cell phones. Apart from being able to drastically increase data transfer rates on existing frequencies (to about 70 Kb/s - this will *really* anger all those companies in Britain who recently bid 25.000.000.000 pounds for UMTS licences) "Der Spiegel" also claims that users of his phones will be able to pin-point their own location without needing GPS systems in their phones. And if users can do that...

jjf

>  Please, someone tell me why this isn't true, and that none of what I just
>  described could possibly happen. It would make my life a lot better.
>  Please??!
>  Pete The Paranoid


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