From: southwark@inbox.com
Newsgroups: uk.telecom.mobile uk.legal uk.finance
Subject: Re: I'm concerned that 02/genie may try and trace me (location). Are there any phones that allow you to stay private
Date: 2 Mar 2007 09:44:09 -0800
   posting-account=QO6JGQwAAABwadptZUz2t8q5k19x9A4k

On Mar 1, 3:20 pm, DavidM  wrote:
> Roger Mills wrote, On 27/02/2007 17:17:
>
>
>
> > In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> > southw...@inbox.com   wrote:
>
> >> I watch The Bill. It seems the police can use location information to
> >> find out where you are (rightly so)
> ..
> >> But also, in a recent change to the 02 terms & conditions, they are
> >> allowed to pass on my information (regarding where I am in the UK) to
> >> debt collection agencies etc.
> ...
> >> Suppose I use a really old handset. Will this make a difference? Or
> >> can they still trace me from my signal.
>
> > If your phone is turned on and connected to the service, they *know* more or
> > less where you are 'cos they know which masts are picking up your signal.
> > Using an old handset would make no difference.
>
> I've used a mobile tracking service (www.world-tracker.com), and can say
> with some confidence that they don't know "more or less" where you are.
> The best location that it gave for my phone had a calculated accuracy of
> 1.7km, and was infact 400m away from where I was. A 1.7km radius circle
> is massive, and would take a bailiff weeks of door to door searching. If
> he even knocked at you door during that search, you would need to give
> him your name in order to be caught, how else would he know who you were.
>
> Also, the location data is more accurate using the GPRS network than the
> GSM network, so the OP is correct in thinking that an old phone will
> disguise his position more effectively. I once ran a track on a GSM
> phone and it gave my location as somewhere within a 4.5km radius circle.
>
> --
> DavidM new...@SPAMdjmorgan.org.ukwww.djmorgan.org.uk



David - THANKS FOR YOUR POST

(and thanks to everyone else who has contributed)


I am in central London in a high rise building.

So I conclude that it's not impossible, but unlikely



I need a bluetooth GSM phone then (as GSM is harder to pin-point than
a GRPS phone)

(Maybe i'll just use a good old Nokia 3210 - nice & simple phone for
SMSing)

(I want bluetooth so I can text from my computer. It is much easier to
type on a real keyboard than on a tiny phone keypad)