# Track Proofing a cell phone. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445 "2012-12-08T20:22:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/1 "2012-12-08T20:22:33Z")
I ran across this Youtube about removing the evil spy battery (or so they claim) from your cell phone. My question is, does this procedure do what’s advertised or does it f\*\*\* up your cellphone in some way- erases some vital volatile memory or the like? [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1caimAQwczQ) ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/2 "2012-12-08T20:51:53Z")
A tiny watch battery can power your phone’s GPS? Where can I get me some of those batteries! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/3 "2012-12-08T23:49:41Z")
If you take out the battery, a cell phone will cease to function. I thought this was common knowledge. Furthermore, _anything_ you can do to prevent your phone from being tracked will prevent it from working as a phone. The cell system has to know where your phone is to route calls through the right tower. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/4 "2012-12-08T23:50:02Z")
Wonder if that guys phone directory and anything else he saved on his cellphone was still there after he did that (and afterwards, after any time he changed his main battery)? ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/5 "2012-12-09T00:16:16Z")
The guy is a moron, for several reasons. 1. Whatever purpose the battery he removed served, it was not a secret government spy battery. 2. If your phone is turned on and functions as a cell phone, the government can track your movements and probably listen to your conversations if they want. Nothing you can do about this other than not have a cell phone. The location tracking does not require GPS, the phone company keeps records of which cell towers your phone communicated with. 3. If you don’t need your phone to be turned on, you can just turn it off and put it in a metal container or wrap it with aluminum foil, and the government won’t be able to do anything to it. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/6 "2012-12-09T00:34:13Z")
(information based on my 7 years of doing bring-up and development on cell phones at a major US cell company, which I no longer work at…) The “hidden” battery he removed is commonly referred to as a “coin cell.” It’s function is to maintain a clock when the primary battery is removed. This is how you can take out the battery, put it back in, turn it on, and see the correct time. (Yes, there is a mechanism to get the time from the network - NITS - but it’s not a mandatory feature, and not all networks support it.) The spec for how long it keeps that clock going varies, but I expect it to be under a day…in some cases, it’s measured in minutes. There is NO WAY you can monitor a GPS signal and report information over cellular networks based on that battery. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/7 "2012-12-09T07:33:23Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > you can just… wrap it with aluminum foil, and the government won’t be able to do anything to it. Or, you can use the aluminum foil to make a hat. The guv’ment wont be able to do anything bad that way, either. 🙂 (on edit: oops, sorry,'bout the joke. I thought there were 10 posts already). ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/8 "2012-12-09T07:46:24Z")
Assume you guys are joking about the aluminum foil 🙂 FWIW - they do sell things for the Feds called “faraday bags” they function as faraday cages, but with a window so you can still see and in some cases manipulate the phone. If you turn your phone off - I think in some cases this action is registered. If you put it in a faraday bag - it just looks like you lost the signal. They sell them so you can’t wipe the phone by remote before they get it to the lab. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/track-proofing-a-cell-phone/643445/9 "2012-12-09T14:04:10Z")
> [@DataX](#): > > Assume you guys are joking about the aluminum foil 🙂 > > FWIW - they do sell things for the Feds called “faraday bags” they function as faraday cages, but with a window so you can still see and in some cases manipulate the phone. If you turn your phone off - I think in some cases this action is registered. If you put it in a faraday bag - it just looks like you lost the signal. > > They sell them so you can’t wipe the phone by remote before they get it to the lab. Turning a phone off properly does interact with the network. The phone tells the network it is going away, and the network stops trying to talk to it, route calls, etc. It frees up slots for other phones. It’s the polite way to vanish. 🙂 -D/a