That doesn't mean that the author isn't mixing up two concepts -
GPS vs cell phone location by the phone system's signalling.
GPS burns too much power to be used in typical cellphones -
most of the cheap GPS sets I've seen get 24 hours or less on
a pair of 1.5v AA batteries, while cellphones should last several days
to a week (at least any cellphone I'd buy...)
On the other hand, cellphone systems do track which cell sites their
users are near, and can track motion over time, though this
may not be accessible from the phone's user interface,
and may require integration between cell sites rather than
being something the phone set itself knows how to do.
GPS improvement helps locate cell sites more precisely,
(though differential GPS can do that at installation time)
and improving GPS may improve the timing that the cell sites can do.
The real problem is that cellphone standards committees
need to recognize the need for privacy - they're currently being asked
to build in location features that don't inform the user
when the user's being located, if I understood one of Lucky's comments
correctly, and they didn't understand why this might bother people....
If the location is something the phone set can do, it ought to
require explicit user permission for location - and also ought to
let the user find out where the phone thinks it is.
At 11:06 PM 05/09/2000 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I came across this in my local newspaper and figured it might be of some
>interest. Earlier, on this thread, I received an email regarding Motorola's
>patents and the government using that information to track cell phones. It
>seems they have expanded their power a bit:
>
>"Manufacturers of cellular telephones, who will be required by the Federal
>Communications Commission next year to make sure all cell phones are capable
>of revealing their positions, will benefit from the increased accuracy as
>well."
> -Baltimore Sun (Monday, May 8, 2000)
>
>The article mentioned accuracy is now around 48 to 60 feet of resolution due
>to the decrypting of civilian GPS signals.
>
>Bob
>
>
>
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
