Although normally only the mobile operator itself can perform this kind of tracking, a government could force the operator to turn over location data about a user (in real-time or as a matter of historical record). There is no way to hide from this kind of tracking as long as your mobile phone is powered on, with a registered SIM card, and transmitting signals to an operator's network. This feature returns a report that contains the phone’s exact GPS coordinates. In particular, it is used where the “locationInfo-r10” feature is supported. For modern cell phones and networks trilateration is also used. Usually, with at least 3 cell towers the operator can get down to ¾ of a mile or 1km. The accuracy with which the operator can figure out a subscriber's location varies depending on many factors, including the technology the operator uses and how many cell towers they have in an area. This is done with Angle of Arrival measurements or AoA. One way the operator can do this is to observe the signal strength that different towers observe from a particular subscriber's mobile phone, and then calculate where that phone must be located in order to account for these observations. The ability to do this results from the way the mobile network is built, and is commonly called triangulation. In all modern mobile networks, the operator can calculate where a particular subscriber's phone is located whenever the phone is powered on and registered with the network.
There are at least four ways that an individual phone's location can be tracked by others. The deepest privacy threat from mobile phones-yet one that is often completely invisible-is the way that they announce your whereabouts all day (and all night) long through the signals they broadcast.
Here, we'll describe some of the ways that phones can aid surveillance and undermine their users' privacy. Some of these problems can be addressed by using third-party privacy software-but some of them can't.
Additionally, the device maker may declare your device obsolete and stop providing you with software updates, including security fixes if this happens, you may not have anywhere else to turn for these fixes. Most mobile phones give the user much less control than a personal desktop or laptop computer would it's harder to replace the operating system, harder to investigate malware attacks, harder to remove or replace undesirable bundled software, and harder to prevent parties like the mobile operator from monitoring how you use the device. Not only do they do a poor job of protecting your communications, they also expose you to new kinds of surveillance risks-especially location tracking. Unfortunately, mobile phones were not designed for privacy and security by default. Mobile phones have become commonplace and basic communications tools-now used not only for phone calls, but also for accessing the Internet, sending text messages, and documenting the world.