Obama wants to track you

[Hush]

EDITORIAL: Obama wants to track you
Justice Department seeks cellphone location information

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... track-you/

[Bargsbeer]

i just today looked in to, Start using a VPN you can get them cheap $10 per month. Also If you have a jailbroken iPhone I have read there are ways to block tracking and location services.

[Syntax360]

Only to a degree. True, the phone stores location data which can be retrieved by apps and authorities - this part the user can disable. However, your phone is still communicating with carriers, connecting to new cell towers as you travel. Access to the carrier's logs will allow one to construct the same general map of where you have traveled and when you were there - and no amount of effort on a rooted device will change that.

Ultimately, if you do not want to be tracked, the cell phone is going to have to be turned off.

A VPN will just keep your data encrypted so that the carrier cannot eavesdrop of what you are doing from your handset - it does nothing to prevent tracking if authorities know who they want to track.

[Bargsbeer]

Only to a degree. True, the phone stores location data which can be retrieved by apps and authorities - this part the user can disable. However, your phone is still communicating with carriers, connecting to new cell towers as you travel. Access to the carrier's logs will allow one to construct the same general map of where you have traveled and when you were there - and no amount of effort on a rooted device will change that.

Ultimately, if you do not want to be tracked, the cell phone is going to have to be turned off.

A VPN will just keep your data encrypted so that the carrier cannot eavesdrop of what you are doing from your handset - it does nothing to prevent tracking if authorities know who they want to track.

I get what your saying about the carriers tracking you, makes sense since they can just ping you off of towers.

But isn't there ways to cover your tracks online? How are these Anonymous hackers covering there tracks?

[kalikraven]

Turning it off won't even work. I read about a FBI wiretap for cell phones that allowed them to remotely turn the cell phones on and listen as if the phone was a bug, listening to everything not just phone calls. I imagine that they could do the same thing with webcams if they wanted... They only way to prevent this is to remove the battery.

[Libertarian_Geek]

Turning it off won't even work. I read about a FBI wiretap for cell phones that allowed them to remotely turn the cell phones on and listen as if the phone was a bug, listening to everything not just phone calls. I imagine that they could do the same thing with webcams if they wanted... They only way to prevent this is to remove the battery.

...or drop it into a metal box when not in use. ...or jam the signal near the phone (illegal).

[Bargsbeer]

...or drop it into a metal box when not in use. ...or jam the signal near the phone (illegal).

Aren't cellphone jammers legal to buy?

[Libertarian_Geek]

...or drop it into a metal box when not in use. ...or jam the signal near the phone (illegal).

Aren't cellphone jammers legal to buy?

As I've heard it... legal to buy, illegal to use.

[Syntax360]

I get what your saying about the carriers tracking you, makes sense since they can just ping you off of towers.

But isn't there ways to cover your tracks online? How are these Anonymous hackers covering there tracks?

Yes, a VPN will do that in theory. All of your online traffic will be encrypted from your device to the VPN (ISP won't be able to monitor what you are doing), and then the VPN will negotiate connections with the services you use online. Good VPNs claim to keep no logs (or log very little), leaving little room to discover who actually made the connection from the VPN. The TOR network is also good for this sort of thing (and free), but one has to be careful with TOR - caution must be taken to make sure all of the software you are using does not leak clues about your identity.

Regarding the FBI monitoring powered down phones, I'd bet anything those phones were loaded with some sort of rootkit - either through physical access or remote-loading of software disguised as a carrier update or something. But yes, there is no guarantee the phone is actually powered down other than removing all sources of power from the handset.

[Blaubart]

How are these Anonymous hackers covering there tracks?

Many ways...

They have to start somewhere. The easiest ways to be anonymous on the Internet are to abuse someone else's wifi connection, or to legitimately use an anoymous wifi hotspot at a coffee shop or a library. Once on the Internet anonymously, they hack other people's computers and network devices and set up VPN tunnels. Then they can connect from their computer in the comfort of their own home, to another computer or network device, to another computer or network device, and so on. If they are agile enough, the authorities will never track them down.

[Libertarian_Geek]

My guess for a reasonably solid system would be:
Live CD OS (no local data storage) + TOR + pre-paid data "burners" + one-time use random pads for crypto + online dead-drops.
(remembering that one time use means one time use and that random means random)

Even still... every wireless phone has to talk to a tower, and those towers have limited range, and directional panels.

It's an interesting thought experiment though.

[poikilotrm]

Turning it off won't even work. I read about a FBI wiretap for cell phones that allowed them to remotely turn the cell phones on and listen as if the phone was a bug, listening to everything not just phone calls. I imagine that they could do the same thing with webcams if they wanted... They only way to prevent this is to remove the battery.

They did exactly that to me for about three months.

[bakerjw]

An old thread resurrected by a spam bot and rather than hitting the flag button, Poke responds.

[continuity]

An old thread resurrected by a spam bot and rather than hitting the flag button, Poke responds.