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0 pointsneoromantique2y ago0 comments

or they just triangulated using his cell phone, it can be very accurate in urban settings

0 comments

You experienced a type 0 SMS. It can wake the GPS on a modern phone and return a GPS location.

Last time I checked cell tower triangulation is accurate to between a few hundred and a few thousand feet. Cellular A-GPS can be good to within a few feet inside houses usually but often its within a few tens of feet in accuracy.

mcpackieh2y ago

> Last time I checked cell tower triangulation is accurate to between a few hundred and a few thousand feet

That was about what LTE could do. With 4G, they got it down to 20-50 meters. Now they can do much better.

paxys2y ago

Police need a warrant to get location data from your cell phone provider. No department is bothering with that for a welfare check unless the situation is really dire, and the process still takes a while to carry out. "Where do you think your brother is?" "Oh probably at XYZ's place" is a much more straightforward and common process.

AmericanChopper2y ago

I have some family who are dispatchers (not in the US), and they have the ability to immediately get location data directly from providers if they think somebody is in imminent danger. They can’t do it to track a suspect (not without a warrant), but they would regularly do it for suspected suicides, or when a caller communicated they were in danger but failed to give their location for what ever reason.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many jurisdictions around the world had similar systems.

soared2y ago

That’s for the person who is actively calling 911 though, not a random persons phone.

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neoromantiqueOP2y ago

I don't know the processes in US, but in Europe I saw this in action first hand done in minutes, so I don't know.

edit: Over a stolen phone, no less, not even a person being in danger.

paxys2y ago

In the US the process is you go to the police to report a stolen phone and they say "tough luck, hope you had insurance".

sidewndr462y ago

Police need a warrant to demand that data. Nothing stops the provider from handing it over willingly.

ROTMetro2y ago

Hopefully this new 'the Government can't compel companies' trial shuts this down as well

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36614678

Either corporations are allowed to be 'pressured' by the government or they aren't. But of course the legal system will make themselves a nice carveout for their uses like always.

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fsckboy2y ago

> Police need a warrant

if the information they gather is to be admissible in court as evidence against a person. Police do not need a warrant to save the life of a person.

drexlspivey2y ago

But they said themselves that they pinged his phone.

paxys2y ago

They may have done both. Or they may be lying. In most cases it's best to assume that the police won't give you any info unless they are compelled to do so (and sometimes not even then).

Kirby642y ago

Seems much more likely that his sister knew the friend, and suggested he might be there? Or there was some relation to the friend to know the exact address. Unless he lived at a single-family house, it's unlikely a phone's GPS would be exact enough.

internetter2y ago

Seems like much more work. Based on the stories I've seen about these operations to track down phones over the years, it's a little more complicated

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orangepurple2y ago

You experienced a type 0 SMS. It can wake the GPS on a modern phone and return a GPS location.

mcpackieh2y ago

> Last time I checked cell tower triangulation is accurate to between a few hundred and a few thousand feet

That was about what LTE could do. With 4G, they got it down to 20-50 meters. Now they can do much better.

paxys2y ago

AmericanChopper2y ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if many jurisdictions around the world had similar systems.

soared2y ago

That’s for the person who is actively calling 911 though, not a random persons phone.

1 more reply

neoromantiqueOP2y ago

I don't know the processes in US, but in Europe I saw this in action first hand done in minutes, so I don't know.

edit: Over a stolen phone, no less, not even a person being in danger.

paxys2y ago

In the US the process is you go to the police to report a stolen phone and they say "tough luck, hope you had insurance".

sidewndr462y ago

Police need a warrant to demand that data. Nothing stops the provider from handing it over willingly.

ROTMetro2y ago

Hopefully this new 'the Government can't compel companies' trial shuts this down as well

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36614678

Either corporations are allowed to be 'pressured' by the government or they aren't. But of course the legal system will make themselves a nice carveout for their uses like always.

1 more reply

fsckboy2y ago

> Police need a warrant

if the information they gather is to be admissible in court as evidence against a person. Police do not need a warrant to save the life of a person.

drexlspivey2y ago

But they said themselves that they pinged his phone.

paxys2y ago

They may have done both. Or they may be lying. In most cases it's best to assume that the police won't give you any info unless they are compelled to do so (and sometimes not even then).

Kirby642y ago

internetter2y ago

Seems like much more work. Based on the stories I've seen about these operations to track down phones over the years, it's a little more complicated

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse