21 Technology Secrets Revealed (Part 2)

Cell Phone: Your Location Tracker

Anywhere you go the cell phone that you carry would facilitate in knowing where you are this is done through the call phone towers that permits your service provider to triangulate the position in which you are within a distance of few steps of your position.

The government can approach the wireless service provider and use the data to known wherever you, if you are carrying a cell phone, says Jennifer Granick of Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The cellular phone tracking can also save life, cellular phone tracking facilitate in positioning abducted people and stranded victims in wilderness. But the law enforcement has used the facility of tracking people without any suitable reason. For example, New Jersey got hold of phone subscribers’ information or data more than 79 times between in the year 2002 and 2008 with no warrant.

Giving such powers to law enforcement unlocks various chances for the information gathering on the people who are not necessarily people of any interest in any investigation, says M. Granick.

Another instance is that police would be able to find out names of everybody where was near the political protest location just because the police were examining an important person or something which happened there, as she says.

The Solution: If someone’s phone has got GPS chip and if you do want to be followed then you need to turn off the cell phone. Even in such instances, the carrier might be able to ring the phone to find out the nearest cell towers. Switching off your cell phone completely is the most excellent bet for dipping off grid, if only for the moment. The next time when you use your cell phone, you are likely to be back on the service providers’ grid.

» Read more

GPS and What You Should Know About Location Information

One of the most advanced technologies that made it into the mainstream is GPS. Short for Global Positioning System, the technology freely provides reliable position and time information 24 hours a day, in all kinds of weather. All that it takes for the technology to work is a GPS receiver and a view of at least four satellites that provides a GPS signal. Mainstreaming of the technology meant that GPS and the services it provides is finding its way into common consumer electronic items such as mobile phones and personal computers. A mobile phone equipped with a GPS opens a whole new world of location based services. Just think of being able to know what restaurants lie along the road being travelled. It means being able to tell people where you are exactly in times of emergencies. The 911 emergency phone system of the United States relies on GPS so that responding units such as paramedics or policemen receiving calls for assistance made on mobile phones are able to provide fast and very reliable services such as CPR, crime prevention or both. Instead of describing to the operator where the call is made, this important detail is taken care of by the GPS embedded in the phone. Modern navigation devices for the car provide voice enabled turn by turn guidance in most cities of the United States. GPS is a technology that makes our lives easier and safer and in most cases is very much welcome tool of everyday use.

» Read more