How does phone tracing work?

How does phone tracing work?
If you have a phone, it connects to the closest cell towers, right? Couldn't you just pick one at random, and then vary the transmit power so it looks like you're always at the same distance?

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suddenly a helicopter with stingray is searching for you

>and then vary the transmit power so it looks like you're always at the same distance?
Now do that with a common phone.

Not do that with any easily commercially available phone.

You'd still connect to the closest one though

You can buy GSM modules and program them yourself, no?
If they just have one cell tower and no information about the distance to it, it's incredibly inaccurate. You could also have it use another ranking algorithm than "highest signal", ranking the more used cell towers higher.

Also, you could mechanically block out more or less of the signal by covering the GSM transmitter.

>You can buy GSM modules and program them yourself, no?
No, GSM modules are invariably black boxes running their own microcode that you interface with.

hackaday.com/2016/04/08/build-your-own-gsm-base-station-for-fun-and-profit/
You can build your own GSM station, how come you can't build your own GSM transmitter?

just use a satellite phone goy.

The current state of Jow Forums
Basically tracing work by triangulating your signal from the 3 towers that you are connected to.
The closest the tower the higher the signal, chart that throw the signals with 3 towers and you get an accurate positioning.
In other words you need to be connected to at least 3 towers at the same time, no random towers are allowed you most be connected to certain set of towers, as for varying the signal that doesn't work because that'd effect all the signals from the towers equally..

This. What the fuck Jow Forums

Why do you need to be connected to at least three towers, though? I can't see how the protocol would require it.

can you get signal reading from a tower you aren't connected to?

Because that's how the system works.
Say you're traveling while talking to someone, when you leave the coverage of a tower the connection would get cut.
Connecting to multiple towers solve this issue, when the "main tower" signal start to weaver it would switch to another tower with better signal.
Anyhow what you should be worried about is that the CPU that handle those tasks allow the running of unsigned arbitrary code.

Yes, it should be possible to send out the roaming signal without authenticating.
But then it only has to be connected to one at a time. It would be perfectly feasible to only be connected to one cell tower, keep signal strength static, and when transmit power goes above a certain limit perform a rescan.
That would substantially decrease the precision.
Also, you could send individually different signal strengths to each tower.

>But then it only has to be connected to one at a time.
No, it has to be connected to at least 3.
The one with the best signal is used for transmitting data, the other towers send and receive the bacon signal.

>they actually named it "bacon"

*beacon

semi related: how the fuck does gps work for millions of people simultaneously when there are only like 30 gps satellites total? and does gps radiation cause cancer

It doesn't have to be connected to at least 3, it has to be connected to at least 1 and 3 is a perfect scenario.
How did you even come up with that?

>Gps radiation
Lmao
>Only 30
No there's is a lot more but you're only connected to 30 of them

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>No there's is a lot more
they're all retired according to wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GPS_satellites
31 are operational.

I stand corrected. I thought they were still running.

No, it connects you to the three closest towers. That way it can seamlessly change towers when you get out of range (and track you a lot easier).

gsm radiowaves triangulation using gsm relays

Basically single towers can get you the distance but no direction. One tower gets you a radius around it where the phone could be. Two towers gets you two possible locations where the circles intersect. Only at three can you tell for certain which one of those two is correct, plus it probably helps greatly in terms of accuracy.

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Chances are if you care about privacy especially to this level you dont even own a phone.

GPS only sends, the satellites don't receive anything.

Single towers can't get the direction if you adapt the transmit power based on distance.

the satellites just constantly spew out their location data and your device figures out where you are by comparing the data from a few different satellites.

Single tower can never get the direction, learn to read.

Because for accurate positioning you need three+ towers for who could have guessed it triangulation. One tower gives you a direction based on distance, two towers give you a rough radius and three towers a (semi) accurate position.

Nope, you most likely are connected to a few most of the time, they send you some data you send some back so they determine which one should be in control of your traffic based on the signal strength.
Now triangulation works using 3 towers however there is not always 3 towers you can connect to. What you are doing here is assuming that the basic requirement of networks is radio triangulation and that, of course, is not the case.
If you were absolutely required to be connected to 3 towers imagine how bad the network would be designed - you would have to back up all 3 of them and in a manner that none of them make additional strain on collision probability which would be pretty ugly.

But I don't know if you can fool them by doing that even if you are connected to only 1 tower, they still get direction and that shrinks the area to look for you.
>transition.fcc.gov/pshs/911/Apps%20Wrkshp%202015/911_Help_SMS_WhitePaper0515.pdf
Educate yourself a bit before speaking in definites.

Single towers can't get the distance*
Yes, but why does a phone have to be connected to 3 different towers to work?

Because you touch yourself at night.

>The closest the tower the higher the signal, chart that throw the signals with 3 towers and you get an accurate positioning
That was the jury rigged shit they had to do before 2005. Modern networks actually calculate the time delta, just like GPS. Smartphones also include literal GPS recievers and there are also databases of WiFi hot spots and their coordinates, so you can still be tracked even when using a WiFi only device such as a laptop.

Also some WiFi devices carry a lengthy list of the last encountered WiFi access points making tracking exceedingly easy.

I didn't know my phone punishes me for all that hentai.

Ever heard of a directional antenna?
I know you probably never go outside but come on.

So if I put in an arbitrary delay, it's safe?

ah, that makes sense. thank you!

There is still the IMEI, a unique identifier burned into the transmitter that is not only registered, but illegal to change.

That doesn't help with finding the location.
What if I make my own transmitter? Is that illegal too?

you do need 3 to get a real triangulation, however cells are directional so you can kind of get direction from a single tower, definitely nothing definitive though

If they don't know where you are you won't receive any calls or TXTs.
It's surprising how many people can't understand this.

>how come you can't build your own GSM transmitter
Jews?

>your device figures out where you are by comparing the data from a few different satellites
how does it do that

By solving math problems.

so you don't know

Can this be used to locate one piece?

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>You can build your own GSM station, how come you can't build your own GSM transmitter?
FCC

The satellite sends out the exact time, then your phone subtracts its time to get the amount of light-seconds to the satellite.
Repeat three times.
Everyone doesn't live in the US. And it should still be legal to write the software.