If I go into the menu on my Motorola phone (and it’s the same on any phone I’ve ever used), it gives me two ‘location’ options: “Always on” and “911 only”. Presumably, ‘always on’ would allow you to use GPS navigation software or what have you, while ‘911 only’ mode somehow masks your location unless you call 911.
How does that work? I admit I only have a minimal knowledge of how GPS systems work, but I assume that in order to not have it always active, the GPS doodad (that’s the technical term) in the phone itself somehow either masks itself or deactivates itself. Either way, obviously you’re changing the settings in your phone itself, which I would think would be an all-or-nothing type thing; the GPS receiver is on or off. Turning it off would make it impossible to ‘ping’ your phone if you did call 911.
So, either I’m entirely wrong about how the GPS tracking function works (likely), and/or the phone companies are lying and there’s really no difference between the two settings. Which is it?
Bonus question: Do any phones come with the ability to entirely disable GPS? I know that the federal government requires all phones to have some sort of GPS capability, but is it ever possible for the consumer to entirely disable it?
I assume it simply powers down the GPS doodad unless it detects that the numbers 911 were dialed, then it powers it up. Then it powers it down after the 911 call is disconnected. It makes sense from a power management standpoint, anyway.
It’s all software. In the “Always On” mode, the GPS in your phone regularly transmits your location to the cell network so you can use GPS-enabled features (and you can be tracked). In the “911 Only” mode, the GPS data is only transmitted when you dial 911.
It"s not legal to disable the 911 GPS signal and also not legal to actiivate a phone that was made prior to the 911 GPS law that went into affect a few years ago.
The non 911 GPS capability is controlled by your service provider, not by you phone itself I believe. It basically limits third party apps like google maps from utilizing your GPS signal to provide you with local positioning. The cops still can tell where you are, but are not supposed to be able to access this information unless you call 911. Do you trust your service provider to not hand this information over to the Feds? If you have AT&T you shouldn’t because they bent to pressure from the Patriot Act to get around what a lot of people are calling illegal wiretaps. It’s a slippery slope onto tracking people by GPS next. Bastards.
QED is most likely correct in the way that we are told that it works. But I like my parinoid consiracy theory a little too much to give up on it just yet. Perhaps I watch 24 too much.
What GPS?
Other than a few smartphones, I didn’t think cellphones had GPS. I know my iPhone doesn’t.
There is a primitive Cell-tower triangulation positioning system available to all phones, but that’s far from GPS.
My LG phone has GPS direction service available through Verizon. Since it only works where you have actual phone service, I presume it is cell-phone triangulation based.
Not all phones have or require GPS. The E911 law simply requires that a caller can be located geographically. This can be done through GPS or radio triangulation.
Some phone-based GPS systems (Assisted GPS) offload some processing to the cell network, thus requiring an active connection.
Some of the newest generation cellphones, such as the Nokia N95 and Nokia 6110, have GPS receivers and software built into them much like TomTom or NavMan GPS navigation systems, and so they work independently of the cellular network. They’re just hitting the market here in Australia, and they’ve been really popular, too. Apparently the GPS systems in them actually work pretty well, from what I’ve heard, too.
And the lack of GPS in the iPhone is one of the many reasons why it has Teh Suck, BTW…
I came in here to mention that. My Motorola phone on Sprint uses Telenav (rebadged as Sprint Nav) as the Navigation service. It has been a life saver many times and I’m finding it more and more useful. After digging on their site for a bit, I found this:
Well, it’s pretty much a non-issue, since there are no third-party GPS Apps yet. I have a tiny BlueTooth GPS for the day when this happens. It’s an AWESOME phone, BTW.
Google maps is a third party app that works on my Blackberry, why wouldn’t it work on the iPhone if it was capable? That’s right, I’m paranoid of the GPS but still have it! Go figure.
If you jaibreak the iPhone, you can install a cool little app called Navizon that uses tower information as well info about which WiFi sites in range to figure your location and plot you on the map. My experience has been that it’s at least as accurate as GPS, at least in downtown Seattle.
WHAT?! That’s beat! Since I started using it, GPS has become my go-to tool for anything from finding my brother’s house in Orlando to the nearest Krystal Burger (there aren’t any in my area :()
On my old phone, when I first got it, I turned off “GPS tracking” or whatever it was termed. Then I noticed that whenever I got a text message it was always hours, if not days, past when the person sent it. Again, with voicemail I would get notifications hours or days after they were left. It wasn’t until I talked with one of my delivery boys (who was an old cell phone salesperson) that I was informed it was because I had disabled the GPS tracking.
According to him, the towers couldn’t relay the text or voicemail because they didn’t know exactly where my phone was unless I either dailed out or somebody called me. Therefore, if somebody texted me in the evening and I didn’t use my phone for 24 hours, I wouldn’t get the text for 24 hours.
With a little testing, turning on and off the GPS, I confirmed (at least to my layperson self) what he said. So at least with that phone, when you turned off the GPS it stayed off. Now, obviously, I don’t know about the 911 part of the question. Regardless, I think it is entirely dependant upon the phone and the service providers policies.
