# Smart phones detecting your location **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2015, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262 "2015-08-29T11:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/1 "2015-08-29T11:04:06Z")
Hi I was wondering how does my Windows Phone (Lumia) can detect my location in apps like “Here” to within about 30 metres even when I’m indoors? I found this link: > **[Ten Ways Your Smartphone Knows Where You Are](https://www.pcworld.com/article/469718/ten_ways_your_smartphone_knows_where_you_are.html)** > > Most people have embraced location-based services without thinking about dangers such as service providers handing over location data in lawsuits or hackers stealing it from app vendors. I wonder which ones would be relevant. Also can the person you’re calling such as emergency services easily find your location using its location feature? Also do all smart phones do geotagging by default? (store the location of where you are when taking JPEGs) I haven’t seen websites that take advantage of this… (e.g. facebook, etc) ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/2 "2015-08-29T11:10:35Z")
My new android Samsung Galaxy S5 has geotagging of photos off by default. When I turned it on, it warned me of the privacy concerns. One data point for you. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/3 "2015-08-29T12:32:59Z")
If you connect to a network or wifi with a known physical location, they can use that. (And yes, the big companies have databases with physical locations of many, many wifi points.) ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/4 "2015-08-29T12:34:05Z")
Cell tower triangulation can be used too. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/5 "2015-08-29T12:34:44Z")
Along with gps and cell tower methods, most will use wifi as well. WiFi networks are fairly unique, not just the name of the network, but each has it’s own ID number, as well as frequency. As smart devices log into these networks a table is constructed stating where these WiFi networks are. So if you connect or are in range of a unique WiFi network that had been previously mapped you will get your location very fast. ---
**Author:** ![chowching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/6 "2015-08-29T16:25:25Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Hi I was wondering how does my Windows Phone (Lumia) can detect my location in apps like “Here” to within about 30 metres even when I’m indoors? > I found this link: > [Ten Ways Your Smartphone Knows Where You Are | PCWorld](http://www.pcworld.com/article/253354/ten_ways_your_smartphone_knows_where_you_are.html) > I wonder which ones would be relevant. Probably through GPS. I am also using a windows phone and I am able to detect my location using the default “Maps” application even if I am not connected to the internet. I have a pre-downloaded map of my country by the way. > [@JohnClay](#): > > Also can the person you’re calling such as emergency services easily find your location using its location feature? Probably. There is a “Find my phone” option in the settings. I have tried this once and I was able to ring and locate my phone through a web browser. I am not sure if the phone needs to be connected to the internet to do this though. (My phone was connected to the internet when I did this). > [@JohnClay](#): > > Also do all smart phones do geotagging by default? (store the location of where you are when taking JPEGs) I haven’t seen websites that take advantage of this… (e.g. facebook, etc) I think it is set by default. You have the option to turn it off in the camera settings. Also, most apps will ask you first if you will allow it to access your location. You can turn on/off your phone’s ability to detect its location in the settings. You can read some infos there too. ---
**Author:** ![DtypeJag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@DtypeJag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DtypeJag)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/7 "2015-08-30T23:06:55Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#): > > Cell tower triangulation can be used too. To get within 30meters or so GPS has to be used. Triangulation will only get you to an approximate area like 1/4mile if you’re lucky. On a slightly different but related subject-- in dealing with the problem of using these phones while driving. I have heard that GPS capable phones can be made inoperative while in motion by slight modification of the software in the internal program. Is this true? If so it solves the problem with only a small inconvenience for a few people. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/8 "2015-08-30T23:14:13Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > To get within 30meters or so GPS has to be used. Triangulation will only get you to an approximate area like 1/4mile if you’re lucky. > > On a slightly different but related subject-- in dealing with the problem of using these phones while driving. I have heard that GPS capable phones can be made inoperative while in motion by slight modification of the software in the internal program. Is this true? If so it solves the problem with only a small inconvenience for a few people. You want to prevent phones from working while in motion? Good luck selling _that_ idea! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/9 "2015-08-30T23:59:20Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > On a slightly different but related subject-- in dealing with the problem of using these phones while driving. I have heard that GPS capable phones can be made inoperative while in motion by slight modification of the software in the internal program. Is this true? If so it solves the problem with only a small inconvenience for a few people. I’m sure it can, but… One word: Passenger Second one word: Children ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/10 "2015-08-31T00:04:20Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > On a slightly different but related subject-- in dealing with the problem of using these phones while driving. I have heard that GPS capable phones can be made inoperative while in motion by slight modification of the software in the internal program. Is this true? If so it solves the problem with only a small inconvenience for a few people. Sure. That’s trivial for the manufacturer to do. I could have done it in about half a day, back when I was in the business. And most of that time would be reading existing code, because I didn’t typically play at that high a level in the stack. One problem is you need to make sure it’s the person DRIVING…the passenger doesn’t want their phone disabled. And you don’t want someone walking down the street to suffer, so just looking for motion isn’t enough. It also means you’re disabling using the device for mapping services. And you’d want to make sure emergency calls are still possible. Oh…and sometimes you lose GPS signal if you’re going through a tunnel or in bad enough weather. So you have to decide how to handle that. Being selective is possible, but trickier. The biggest issues, though, is going to be the market. Unless all phones are mandated to have this feature, I suspect consumers will pick phones that do what they want them to do…that is, work as phones. ---
**Author:** ![DtypeJag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@DtypeJag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DtypeJag)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/11 "2015-08-31T02:12:49Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Sure. That’s trivial for the manufacturer to do. I could have done it in about half a day, back when I was in the business. And most of that time would be reading existing code, because I didn’t typically play at that high a level in the stack. > > One problem is you need to make sure it’s the person DRIVING…the passenger doesn’t want their phone disabled. And you don’t want someone walking down the street to suffer, so just looking for motion isn’t enough. > > It also means you’re disabling using the device for mapping services. > And you’d want to make sure emergency calls are still possible. > > Oh…and sometimes you lose GPS signal if you’re going through a tunnel or in bad enough weather. So you have to decide how to handle that. > > Being selective is possible, but trickier. > The biggest issues, though, is going to be the market. Unless all phones are mandated to have this feature, I suspect consumers will pick phones that do what they want them to do…that is, work as phones. I understand your objections and at least one could be easily met by setting them for say \>10mph. Of course because of market forces anything like this would have to be mandated. In a few years as the car population turns over most cars will have built in Nav systems that are better than from a phone. The main disadvantage would be passenger use. Whatever did we do in a car before we had these things? As with everything, do we decide that the fun and or convenience of many people outweigh the death and destruction visited on a comparative few? Just have to wait until better stats are in on cellphones and driving. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smart-phones-detecting-your-location/729262/12 "2015-08-31T06:24:56Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > To get within 30meters or so GPS has to be used. Triangulation will only get you to an approximate area like 1/4mile if you’re lucky… I can see myself on maps to within about 30m when indoors such as at home or at a mall. The link in my OP talked about other methods.