Date: Sat, 06 May 2000 21:11:58 +0200 From: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@fbwi.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> To: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [OT] Finding people with GSM phones (was Re: GPS heads up ) Message-ID: <4.1.20000506210410.009fbaf0@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> In-Reply-To: <200005061909.MAA07423@mass.cdrom.com> References: <Your message of "Sat, 06 May 2000 20:53:25 %2B0200." <4.1.20000506204714.00cd5290@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de>
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At 12:09 06.05.00 -0700, you wrote: >> There were some famous cases where some criminals were located by tracking >> down their cell phone. The police needed some decision from court to do >> that, but after that, it was a short way to go. The GSM nets have some of >> this ability built in, to track phones. The operators only don't want the >> "normal" citizen or user to know about that. > >This capability of GSM was well known when it was introduced in .au, but >when my phone was stolen, the telco bastards wouldn't admit to being able >to tell me anything about where it was (even though I could still call >it...). > >What's being proposed here sounds just slightly scary. hi! Well, thats reality. Sometimes the mobile telco hotlines are so overloaded, you cannot even tell them that your phone was stolen. (Talk about service-but you get what you pay for) In germany, there is some list, where every cell phone can be entered with its IMEI-number (thats like the MAC on an ethernet card). So theoretically you simply enter them and make them useless for the thief. But its too much work for the telcos, so they tell you they cannot, their computer systems are down, or the list is overcrowded and no more entries can be made (there was a discussion on .de usenet some year ago, IIRC, and they stated that the list indeed was very big and no-one really cared for that), etc etc. It is simply some work, that they don't get paid for, have some personnel that is not trained for other tasks then saying: Ok, I'll send you some prospects... So there are some insurance companies offering policies, but we all know the attitude of insurance... Bottom line: The telco does not want it, because it is work, and they don't make money with it. It would be technically able to enter the _individual number_ of a cell phone into a database (which already exists), rendering stolen cell phones useless immediately. They will be simply denied upon log-in to the tower. Regards Olaf Hoyer -------- Olaf Hoyer www.nightfire.de mailto:Olaf.Hoyer@nightfire.de FreeBSD- Turning PC's into workstations ICQ:22838075 Liebe und Hass sind nicht blind, aber geblendet vom Feuer, dass sie selber mit sich tragen. (Nietzsche) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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