"emergency locator"

I got this email forwarded through a friend. Does anyone heard of it? If
it's true it could be very useful. PeterK

"You may remember that a young woman was recently abducted from a Target
parking lot in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City. Her body was
discovered many miles away in Missouri. They were able to locate her by the
sequence of cell phone towers that picked up her cell phone location. She
had not attempted to dial out, but when her family was trying to call her
the towers could sense her phone. Sadly, the authorities were not able to
reach her in time. However, they were able to locate her body which was in
an area where they never would have searched without the cell phone tower
information.

Below is information from my daughter-in-law who lives in Kansas City . The
cell phone "locator" can be either set on "E911" in which case you must dial
out to be located, or it can be set to be on all the time. I called my cell
phone company and was assured there is no negative consequence (like higher
battery use) from having it on all the time. With it on all the time you can
be located by emergency services through the police if you fail to respond
(sick, injured or worse).

I found that on my phone "location" was not on. I turned it on so my phone
can be traced. See below for more info that was sent to me by someone here
at work:

ALL cell phones have this feature. It's called Location. It's under the
Settings tool (on my phone it's under Settings, System, Location). Once you
turn this on, THEN your phone is traceable (select "Location On" instead of
"E911 Only"). To stay safe, everyone needs to check their phone and turn
this on!!! "

Randomy forwarded emails flowing around the Internet are usually not
sources of reliable information and this one is no different. Googling
E911 or "Enhanced 911" or "cell phone tracking" or similar things turn
up useful information, for example
http://contact.bellsouth.com/email/b...ml#Enhanced911
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_911 The email is also
discussed on some "urban legend" web sites.

The first factual error is not all cell phones have this E911 feature,
it is specific only to GPS enabled handets. The premise that these
cell phones can be turned into an always transmiting GPS beacon is
also not true. The "E911" (Enhanced 911) and "locator" (or similar)
settings only control wether a GPS equipped phone sends it's GPS
coordinates when making a call. This controls wether you are willing
to give your GPS location to the other party on the call - useful for
their marketing purposes etc. if call centers are equipped with the
right equipment to decode the information. Becasue it may be used as a
part of the FCC mandated Enhanced 911 services you can't turn this off
for 911 calls but you can turn it off for all others. Some carriers
may not use GPS to locate you even if your handset is sending it out -
they use other methods or a combination of methofs described in the
links above. You have no control over carriers locating your handet by
the other methods.

Unlike the email suggested this has nothing to do with tracking cell
phones when no call is being made. That is possible today using cell
based location tracking and is used routinely by carriers for fraud
detection (e.g. for velocity profiling - could that phone possibly
have travelled from location to location that fast or is it a "cloned"
phone) and by law enforcement.

What/who/how you can be tracked if you land out or crash in your
glider within cell phone coverage and don't make a call will depend a
lot on the carrier capabilities and who knows to go and try to locate
you. If you are in a condition to make a call you probably can help
rescuers by describing where you think you are or what you can see
etc. and of you do make a call in an emergency it should be to 911 and
they are likely the best equipped to try to track you or to start the
process - and in that case it makes no difference if you GPS cell
phone is set to E911 or "locator" since the GPS location is always
sent for 911 calls - even if the carrier does not acutally use that
info.

Technically unrelated, but a good choice for emergency location based
beacon for sailplane are the excellent PLBs (personal location
beacons).

BTW the other posting of web sites offering satelite cell phone
tracking are an obvious scam. I'd hope they are obvious but they still
seem to sucker some people...

Darryl

On Aug 6, 7:03 pm, "Peter" wrote:
I got this email forwarded through a friend. Does anyone heard of it? If
it's true it could be very useful. PeterK

"You may remember that a young woman was recently abducted from a Target
parking lot in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City. Her body was
discovered many miles away in Missouri. They were able to locate her by the
sequence of cell phone towers that picked up her cell phone location. She
had not attempted to dial out, but when her family was trying to call her
the towers could sense her phone. Sadly, the authorities were not able to
reach her in time. However, they were able to locate her body which was in
an area where they never would have searched without the cell phone tower
information.

Below is information from my daughter-in-law who lives in Kansas City . The
cell phone "locator" can be either set on "E911" in which case you must dial
out to be located, or it can be set to be on all the time. I called my cell
phone company and was assured there is no negative consequence (like higher
battery use) from having it on all the time. With it on all the time you can
be located by emergency services through the police if you fail to respond
(sick, injured or worse).

I found that on my phone "location" was not on. I turned it on so my phone
can be traced. See below for more info that was sent to me by someone here
at work:

ALL cell phones have this feature. It's called Location. It's under the
Settings tool (on my phone it's under Settings, System, Location). Once you
turn this on, THEN your phone is traceable (select "Location On" instead of
"E911 Only"). To stay safe, everyone needs to check their phone and turn
this on!!! "

Excellent summary of the current situation with GPS cell phomes.

However, carriers will soon offer something called "buddy tracking" which
will allow your GPS enabled cell hone to automatically send its coordinates
via SMS to a short list of selected cell numbers at regular intervals. This
might become useful for pilot to crew position reports. We'll see.

On another, but interesting, cell phome subject, get ready to hear about
"femtocells". These are small, low power, cellular base stations that use
broadband Internet connections for backhaul to the cellular network. They
are, in effect, a personal cell tower in your home. Calls switch
automatically to regular towers as you leave home. This is an extremely
disruptive technology as it extends the cellular network to any location
with a broadband Internet connection. This is real cellphone service, NOT
VoIP. Sell your baby bell stock.

Bill Daniels


wrote in message
ups.com...

Randomy forwarded emails flowing around the Internet are usually not
sources of reliable information and this one is no different. Googling
E911 or "Enhanced 911" or "cell phone tracking" or similar things turn
up useful information, for example
http://contact.bellsouth.com/email/b...ml#Enhanced911
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_911 The email is also
discussed on some "urban legend" web sites.

The first factual error is not all cell phones have this E911 feature,
it is specific only to GPS enabled handets. The premise that these
cell phones can be turned into an always transmiting GPS beacon is
also not true. The "E911" (Enhanced 911) and "locator" (or similar)
settings only control wether a GPS equipped phone sends it's GPS
coordinates when making a call. This controls wether you are willing
to give your GPS location to the other party on the call - useful for
their marketing purposes etc. if call centers are equipped with the
right equipment to decode the information. Becasue it may be used as a
part of the FCC mandated Enhanced 911 services you can't turn this off
for 911 calls but you can turn it off for all others. Some carriers
may not use GPS to locate you even if your handset is sending it out -
they use other methods or a combination of methofs described in the
links above. You have no control over carriers locating your handet by
the other methods.

Unlike the email suggested this has nothing to do with tracking cell
phones when no call is being made. That is possible today using cell
based location tracking and is used routinely by carriers for fraud
detection (e.g. for velocity profiling - could that phone possibly
have travelled from location to location that fast or is it a "cloned"
phone) and by law enforcement.

What/who/how you can be tracked if you land out or crash in your
glider within cell phone coverage and don't make a call will depend a
lot on the carrier capabilities and who knows to go and try to locate
you. If you are in a condition to make a call you probably can help
rescuers by describing where you think you are or what you can see
etc. and of you do make a call in an emergency it should be to 911 and
they are likely the best equipped to try to track you or to start the
process - and in that case it makes no difference if you GPS cell
phone is set to E911 or "locator" since the GPS location is always
sent for 911 calls - even if the carrier does not acutally use that
info.

Technically unrelated, but a good choice for emergency location based
beacon for sailplane are the excellent PLBs (personal location
beacons).

BTW the other posting of web sites offering satelite cell phone
tracking are an obvious scam. I'd hope they are obvious but they still
seem to sucker some people...

Darryl

On Aug 6, 7:03 pm, "Peter" wrote:
I got this email forwarded through a friend. Does anyone heard of it? If
it's true it could be very useful. PeterK

"You may remember that a young woman was recently abducted from a Target
parking lot in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City. Her body was
discovered many miles away in Missouri. They were able to locate her by
the
sequence of cell phone towers that picked up her cell phone location. She
had not attempted to dial out, but when her family was trying to call her
the towers could sense her phone. Sadly, the authorities were not able to
reach her in time. However, they were able to locate her body which was
in
an area where they never would have searched without the cell phone tower
information.

Below is information from my daughter-in-law who lives in Kansas City .
The
cell phone "locator" can be either set on "E911" in which case you must
dial
out to be located, or it can be set to be on all the time. I called my
cell
phone company and was assured there is no negative consequence (like
higher
battery use) from having it on all the time. With it on all the time you
can
be located by emergency services through the police if you fail to
respond
(sick, injured or worse).

I found that on my phone "location" was not on. I turned it on so my
phone
can be traced. See below for more info that was sent to me by someone
here
at work:

ALL cell phones have this feature. It's called Location. It's under the
Settings tool (on my phone it's under Settings, System, Location). Once
you
turn this on, THEN your phone is traceable (select "Location On" instead
of
"E911 Only"). To stay safe, everyone needs to check their phone and turn
this on!!! "

"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote in message
. ..
Excellent summary of the current situation with GPS cell phomes.

However, carriers will soon offer something called "buddy tracking" which
will allow your GPS enabled cell hone to automatically send its
coordinates via SMS to a short list of selected cell numbers at regular
intervals. This might become useful for pilot to crew position reports.
We'll see.


http://products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=fnd_toolsApps_childFinder&cm_re=Glob al-_-Features%20and%20Downloads-_-Tools%20%26%20Applications%20Family%20Locator

if that wraps too bad - verizonwireless.com
features & downloads
tools & applications
family locator

Couldn't figgure out how much they charge for this though...


--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote in message
news:Ko2dncAibLuIlSTbnZ2dnUVZ_hKdnZ2d@wideopenwest .com...
"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote in message
. ..
Excellent summary of the current situation with GPS cell phomes.

However, carriers will soon offer something called "buddy tracking" which
will allow your GPS enabled cell hone to automatically send its
coordinates via SMS to a short list of selected cell numbers at regular
intervals. This might become useful for pilot to crew position reports.
We'll see.


http://products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=fnd_toolsApps_childFinder&cm_re=Glob al-_-Features%20and%20Downloads-_-Tools%20%26%20Applications%20Family%20Locator

if that wraps too bad - verizonwireless.com
features & downloads
tools & applications
family locator

Couldn't figgure out how much they charge for this though...


--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.


I asked about this service/feature. It only works when you are actually in
a call and manually send your location which is displayed on a city map - no
country maps. "Buddy tracking" would not require a call - it would send GPS
coordinates automatically at intervals.

Bill Daniels

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe wrote:

http://products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=fnd_toolsApps_childFinder&cm_re=Glob al-_-Features%20and%20Downloads-_-Tools%20%26%20Applications%20Family%20Locator

if that wraps too bad - verizonwireless.com
features & downloads
tools & applications
family locator

Use tinyurl.com to overcome wrapping problems - quick, easy, free.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org