Re: FCC v Mom

[Richard Cox <richard () beijing spamhaus cn>]

On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:15:30 -0500
"Larry Seltzer" <larry () larryseltzer com> wrote:

> > > ...my phone is now reporting its gps location as part of its
> > > keepalive/beacon/here-i-am/background signalling, which means
> > > any law enforcer who has read the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act can find
> > > out where i am/was or get a tracking subpoena to find out where
> > > i usually am/go
>
> I'll admit I hadn't heard that it was reporting this data, but do you
> actually think companies are going to log it and maintain the data?
> Doesn't seem like they'd normally have any reason to do that.
> Do they log any heartbeat data pre-GPS?

In Europe and other countries where GSM is the standard system, it IS
usual for networks to log each phone's movement data (from cell site
changes, not from GPS because we don't use GPS for that) as part of
their anti-fraud measures.  It becomes trivial for them to pass that
to law-enforcement, and in the UK (as a result of RIPA) that is classed
as "communications data" rather than content, and therefore much easier
to access than call content.

Of course a European phone which "roams" when in the USA is not required
to use any form of GPS tracking - however the call costs will be higher!

-- 
Richard
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