A fix is long overdue for one of the most extensive, yet lesser-known surveillance risks of our age: the technical vulnerabilities at the heart of the world’s mobile communications networks.
Yep, everyone is carrying a location device at all times, one that is reporting pretty accurate location information (within a few meters, probably closer by utilizing analytical systems that incorporate GPS data from other apps, not even ones on your phone).
I’d bet today you could geo-locate a person within 1 meter using just cell triangulation, because there’s a database of known power levels of each tower/antenna. Add in wifi and Bluetooth data, and well…
5G will make this tremendously more accurate, as each cell is far smaller. 4G can cover cells in the miles-radius range (though far less in urban areas), while 5G is limited to cell radius measured in feet - 2000ft at its best, most likely 50-200 in urban settings.
With smaller cells comes much more accurate location data from the network itself, data that is certainly retained and analyzed extensively.
And then there’s text messaging that is utterly insecure. Just capturing tower location data and messages could give someone tons of info about a person.
Yep, everyone is carrying a location device at all times, one that is reporting pretty accurate location information (within a few meters, probably closer by utilizing analytical systems that incorporate GPS data from other apps, not even ones on your phone).
I’d bet today you could geo-locate a person within 1 meter using just cell triangulation, because there’s a database of known power levels of each tower/antenna. Add in wifi and Bluetooth data, and well…
5G will make this tremendously more accurate, as each cell is far smaller. 4G can cover cells in the miles-radius range (though far less in urban areas), while 5G is limited to cell radius measured in feet - 2000ft at its best, most likely 50-200 in urban settings.
With smaller cells comes much more accurate location data from the network itself, data that is certainly retained and analyzed extensively.
And then there’s text messaging that is utterly insecure. Just capturing tower location data and messages could give someone tons of info about a person.