XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: rragnusen@ultred.com   
      
   Am Fri, 23 Mar 2018 01:56:55 +0100, schrieb Carlos E. R.:   
      
   > No, it is the same thing. Actually, it does not matter, as what you call   
   > "the voice system" is always active and is calibrated to gather this   
   > information automatically and continuously.   
      
   Thank you Carlos E. R. for being one of the rare (aka adult) posters to   
   this thread who comprehended the topic, and, additionally, who is adding   
   value to the topic!   
      
   Yes. I'm not sure what the technical term for the "ping" is that   
   establishes continual communications with the nearest tower, but we agree   
   that this is the ping that brought the police to the bomber's doorstep.   
      
   AFAIK, you "can" prevent that ping by putting the phone on "airplane" mode,   
   isn't that correct?   
      
   > And another thing: they can track you days after you were there. Or   
   > years after: the only requirement is that the provider stores the logs   
   > from every tower. Then a court order to obtain the data and calculate   
   > the position.   
      
   Yes. I was in a court case recently where it mattered where I was during a   
   certain time while I was tracking some activity in the woods a couple of   
   years ago.   
      
   The police knew about that tracking at the time, so I'm not sure if they   
   had the cell tower records purposefully saved, but they came up since where   
   I was at the time that the activity I recorded happening was important.   
      
   Who knows how long the cellular companies save this stuff, but you are   
   correct, which is, in fact, how they knew that the bomber was at the Home   
   Depot, and the Fryes and at, I think the FedEx.   
      
   Interestingly, the bomber thought that the FedEx trip is what killed him,   
   according to the police characterization of the video the bomber recorded.   
   But the bomber couldn't have known that they had tracked him a week prior,   
   based on his Home Depot transactions.   
      
   Something must have clued him into the police being called when he mailed   
   those packages as Kelly Killmore at the FedEx wearing the wig and gloves. I   
   think it could have been that there was no news, which indicated that the   
   packages were intercepted. I think one blew up but the other was captured   
   intact.   
      
   Apparently people in line were suspicious by his silly wig and gloves, so   
   they reported his vehicle which matched the Home Depot vehicle, so that's   
   when he knew the police were on to him (AFAIK).   
      
   > There is nothing you can do to avoid this, AFAIK.   
      
   That's why I was saying that the bomber must have /felt/ extremely safe   
   because it's crazy to /plan/ to commit a crime and use a cell phone while   
   you're doing things related to the crime.   
      
   I can see using the cell phone during an unplanned crime of passion, or, as   
   a decoy trick to lead the police in the wrong direction, which is what I'd   
   expect any normal criminal to do ... for exammple to use the cellphone, as   
   a certain crime boss did with his vacation, to prove you're nowhere near   
   the crime scene ... but to use the phone during the commission of a crime   
   is just crazy if you plan on committing a crime.   
      
   > For that they need access to a different data set. The phone must have   
   > the GPS chip active, some application requesting the exact position, and   
   > the phone sending that information back to somewhere - like Google,   
      
   I agree with you that, in addition to the basic cellular "ping", having GPS   
   turned on is crazy for a criminal to do on a planned crime. We don't know   
   whether this bomber had his GPS on, nor whether he had Android, and if he   
   did, whether it was set up to report his location in the background to   
   Google.   
      
   That would seem to be a stupid thing for a criminal to do, where this   
   criminal prided himself, apparently, on his technical know how (according   
   to the police characterization of the confession).   
      
   If he had an Android phone, it would behoove him to turn off all the   
   background Google tracking, and if he had an iPhone, it would be just as   
   sane to turn off any app that does tracking (such as Google maps).   
      
   Thanks for your on-topic adding of value to the question of what specific   
   cellphone technology did in the bomber.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)