The FCC is at it again!

Until they can figure a way to implant a GPS in my rear I will not loose sleep over my cell phone.

The technology works both ways, assuming I committed a crime and knew the fuzz was capable of finding me trough my cell phone I will find a way to get rid of the phone on a passing bus or truck sending the police in wild goose chase and away from me.

The only thing "new" is that VoIP providers have to start tracking mobile devices and give a location. The requirement for location accuracy began over 5 years ago with the requirement for Enhanced 9-1-1. The rules are that a carrier must be able to certify greater than 85% of their devices are GPS compatible by the deadline. Seeing as how all new phones have had the chips in them for several years...

As Box Car mentioned, E911 has required location availability with ever increasing accuracy for a while. The move to GPS is an admission that TDOA and signal strength methods don't really cut it as far as accuracy goes, particularly in "urban canyons."

Will GPS with a tiny patch antenna, in your pocket, be any better in urban canyon situations? So part of the "agreement" to go GPS is a way for the industry to get the FCC off their backs on the issue -- okay, we'll go with GPS, and it won't work an better in dense urban canyon situations, but by going with GPS you can't force us to tighten up accuracy.

For the paranoid out there, for GPS to work, you have to be able to receive signals from GPS satellites. There are many, many solutions to this problem.

A good source for following FCC issues is the CommLawBlog -- search for it and give it a look. They had a short write-up on this earlier in the week.

The FCC allows Lightsquared to kill GPS and then they require GPS in all phones, sounds about right!

You can always use a Trac phone as a back up, and they won't even know who you are. It will drive them crazy if you only turn your phoe on once in a while.
Every time thay look you will be someplace different.

Most phones will xmit even when off, so it will be a pain to hide but can be done.

Just where did you find this little gem of information? Just because a phone blanks its screen doesn't mean it's off. When you hit the power switch, it is off and not until then.

Just remove the battery. No power, no way can it transmit.

Anything I've heard of tracking while the phone is off, is the cell companies ability to remotely turn on the phone, thus the phone isn't off.

Whether that is true or not, I don't know. Regardless, if you're that paranoid, remove the battery when not using the phone.

I love the fact that everyhting is going toward mandated GPS. The reason I take this position is that for criminals who use the device's the apprehension rate should rise. For those of us who are law abiding citizens it offers a degree of prood or out whereabouts. I have heard the argument from those who rail about "big brother" watching their moves ever so closely. I say GPS everything and we can establish an alibi for the innocent and apprehend the crinminals quicker.

I hope I haven't offended anyone

Did you say the Fuzz, flaco? Man did you date yourself with that ! Me too, since I understood it. LOL LOL !

When I bought mine, I had to use a credit card AND signature required to accept delivery.

Maybe one could just leave their cell phone home. I believe I remember clearly that there was a time we didn't have the convenience of cell phones.

Dilbert Cartoon.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-05-27

If you think that mandatory GPS is scary. Then you should see what big brother has had on all phones since the Motorla's razor. They can turn on your microphoneon(even if the cell phone is turned off and have it transmit to big brother what ever can be heard. And the cell phone won't even give any indication that this hapened. It will send the audio and gps coordinates. The only way you can keep this from happening is to remove the battery. Guess people like me with iphones are sc**wed.
After i saw this in action what scares me is, can they turn on the bluetooth in your GPS and listen in that too. Granted blue tooth is a short distance but look in your rear view mirror big brother just might be following you.

Oh man "the fuzz" that's dated way back. Was it the 50s or 60s name for the cops?

If you pay government types enough money, they will say the sky is pink, and water is a solid.

They can't invest (Solyndra, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security), and they can't make technological decisions (LightSquared, and many others). This is why you should hire EXPERTS in the field (and listen to them), NOT your political allies!

I have a very boring life, so I have nothing to hide.... but personal information in the hands of bureaucrats is a bad idea. There is too many examples of misusing the info ('accidentally' giving medical information to insurance companies). I can't think of anyway to misuse GPS information, except someone stealing it from a database for a divorce... otherwise it would be useful to law enforcement, and that is good.

I find it intriguing that people think that some government agency is collecting certain information on them (in this instance from GPS data)? What agency would that be?

Now it is true that "something" is collecting lots of information on people. Google, Facebook, credit card issuers, phone companies, OnStar, etc. have data mined lots of our personal information. People think that are getting a free service (like Google search) but they are really paying for the service with their personal information.

It is true that government entities can subpoena information from data collectors but they must do so with good cause. Data collectors do not like to share their information as doing so reduces the value of the information they would like to sell.

@nightcrawler, I would be interested in some link to articles where some bureaucrats were found to be "'accidentally' giving medical information to insurance companies". I used to work for an insurance company and have never heard of anything that would indicate there was any pattern of doing that.

Various government agencies have collected and stored information on us by virtue of our voting, buying/selling homes and cars, being born,getting married or divorced, being involved in accidents or lawsuits, getting tickets, applying for benefits like social security, medicare or medicaid, paying various taxes, etc. Some of these are public records that anyone can get access to.

Assuming that the government is collecting other types of information, where would they be storing it? Can anyone point to vast government data server farms like those I assume that Google has?

They can already track you with your cell phone. Putting in a GPS will just make it easier.

Everybody is a "little brother" being watched over by Big Brother...and marketers. Has been that way for years.

Everyone don't want big brother watching but sometimes you stranded then you love it.

Cheating husbands and wives are the ones who really have something to worry about . . .

maybe the next time you go to the hospital for a procedure and they anesthetize you, a chip can be planted....

The Department of Homeland Security. I'll leave my usual snide comments out of the discussion since America has finally started waking up from its collective slumber. I will say that DHS focuses more on internal threats, and to them citizens that actually think for themselves are a threat. Tracking those citizens through the GPS built into all cell phones since 2002 is a trivial matter to them.

Several people seemed to think that GPS tracking is relatively harmless. Overall it may be, but here is something else to think about since this forum deals with travel.

Suppose you become overdue with your car payment. The car can be disabled besides being easily found.

You rent a car and the requirement is that it stay within a certain geographical area. You go outside of that area and the car turns off.

You return the car, and the rental company hands you a huge bill for speeding.

Of course my examples above are situations were the driver is at "fault". Nevertheless it points out how we can be increasingly monitored and controlled. So much for the liberty and freedom of the "open road".