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A new dimension in cellphone tracking
The Federal Communications Commission is considering new rules for how wireless carriers handle 911 calls. Dispatchers already receive location information automatically during emergency calls, but the new rules would require greater precision and, for the first time, an estimate of each caller’s altitude. Privacy advocates worry that this three-dimensional location data will be used by police, private businesses or hackers to track people for other purposes.
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Cellphone tracking: Find an address? Easy. But new devices can calculate your altitude.
The increasing use of GPS tracking, the privacy advocates say, offers a cautionary tale. Even if callers have turned off the capability on their smartphones, 911 systems are capable of remotely activating GPS functions and extracting precise locations.
This may cause little concern since somebody calling authorities typically wants to be found. But if smartphones are designed to include the ability to have their GPS tools activated remotely, there is no guarantee that others will not secretly take advantage of that feature. Users making 911 calls typically do not get notification that their smartphones have activated the GPS functions and reported the location to authorities.
Jim Dempsey, senior counsel to the Center for Democracy & Technology and a veteran of debates over FCC location rules, said privacy concerns could be lessened by requiring wireless carriers to build systems capable of transmitting altitude measurements only during 911 calls. “It’s not like the FCC is forcing anyone to design a mass surveillance tool of the future,” Dempsey said.
But Rundle, the Australian glider pilot and app developer, said location data generated for 911 calls will inevitably be collected by the government — and perhaps others — to track cellphone users.
“It’s the dilemma of today’s technology. You can’t make it hack-proof,” he said. “If somebody can program it, someone else can re-purpose it.”
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Although accuracy standards are in place to help find outdoor 911 callers, those requirements are often not enough to identify the building or floor where an emergency call is coming from. The FCC is proposing a three-step plan with initial implementation of tighter horizontal accuracy standards within two years, vertical standards in three years, and overall improved service after five years. This would be the first time the FCC would require vertical as well as horizontal information.
Although aimed at finding indoor callers, the requirements could also lead to improved outdoor location accuracy as well.
Under the proposed rules cell phone companies, that is providers of Commercial Mobile Radio Service or CRMS, would be required to provide horizontal location (x- and y-axis) information within 50 meters of the caller for 67 percent of 911 calls placed from indoor environments within two years of the effective date of adoption of rules, and for 80 percent of indoor calls within five years.
They would have three years to provide vertical location (z-axis) information within three meters of the caller for 67 percent of indoor 911 calls and for 80 percent of calls within five years. They would need to meet the requirements at either the county or emergency call center geographic level and would have to demonstrate compliance.
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