
Govt. tracks Cell Phones all at once, Accurately, without GPS or a Warrant - sswam
http://sswam.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/big-brother-can-track-cell-phones-accurately-en-masse-sans-gps/
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dasht
The linked article talks of "forcing" carriers into this.

The "trueposition.com" web site makes it clear that they ship their hardware
("TruePosition Location Measurement Units") ostensibly for 9-1-1-from-mobile
purposes.

For that reason (and others) it seems to me extremely likely that carriers
don't need to be forced to support mass tracking at all. It's already there or
easily slipped in. (The TruePosition platform does not rely exclusively on the
Location Measurement Units.)

Heh.... This merits looking into:

[http://www.trueposition.com/web/guest/press-
releases?p_p_id=...](http://www.trueposition.com/web/guest/press-
releases?p_p_id=62_INSTANCE_lSc3&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_count=1&_62_INSTANCE_lSc3_struts_action=%2Fjournal_articles%2Fview&_62_INSTANCE_lSc3_groupId=10124&_62_INSTANCE_lSc3_articleId=28427&_62_INSTANCE_lSc3_version=1.0)

Here (about that):

[http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/23/iphone-congress-mobile-
tech...](http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/23/iphone-congress-mobile-technology-
cellphones.html)

~~~
sswam
I updated and expanded my article based on your feedback, and removed the
wording 'forced'. Thanks very much.

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devmonk
A peer-to-peer towerless mesh network ( e.g. Terranet
<http://www.terranet.se/> ) could solve this problem.

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sswam
Yes, perhaps free, community-operated p2p wifi networks could replace the
monolithic paid cellular networks. It might take a long time before this would
happen though.

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rexyo
There's also this thing called OpenBTS, but a search for it only lists about
17.000 results [http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=openbts&#...</a>

~~~
devmonk
Why not eliminate the possibility of something pretending to be a base station
to a number of nodes in the immediate area? With a mesh network, a takeover of
an area by a single device may be less likely. Still, there would be a chance
of one or more of the nodes causing mischief, and if multiple nodes in an area
are compromised that could certainly be an even greater issue. So, direct
point-to-point communication is still more preferable.

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sswam
A couple examples of how such a universal surveillance system might be used:

big brother could identify the people who meet with known peace activists or
political rivals, find their meeting places, and disrupt meetings or capture
participants. They could track a target user until he might travel to a less
populated area, then dispatch someone or something to capture or kill him.

~~~
trafficlight
Or you could just leave your cell phone at home when you're going on
clandestine missions.

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sswam
I made a shorter url for this post: <http://sam.ai.ki/mofo>

