By Vaibhav Jain
on
August 16, 2017
It is no longer a secret that the police can spy on people’s mobile phones irrespective of whether they are criminals or not. Learn how they do it.
If you thought your mobile phone guarantees you unchecked privacy, you need to think again. The reason is that with an increase in the level of crimes, we are seeing that privacy getting eroded as time goes by. This is because the advent of mobile telephony has become a convenient tool for criminals to ply their dirty trade. This trend has led to state agents resorting to complex tracking as a means of curbing crime. The police the world over use tracking tools to enhance their how to track a cell phone strategies. But how exactly does the police track people’s phones? Getting an answer to this question is paramount since it affects you as a free citizen in a civilized age. In the remaining sections of this discussion, we shall look at how the police and other state agents can snoop on your phone for other reasons beyond just enforcing the law.
Once you get yourself on the right side of the law, you can go on with your spying mission using a cell phone spy app from a credible supplier like
https://www.mspy.com/.
How to track a cell phone: Using triangulation
The first way that the police can track your phone is using a method called triangulation. For this tracking to take place, your phone needs to be on so that the device connects to a tower for easy tracking by law enforcement agents.
Using your SIM card registration details
Another method the police use to aid them in their spying mission is the details you used to register your SIM card on the day you bought it. Law enforcement agents can request your mobile phone service provider to furnish them with the details that include your full names and address.
Tracking using Android location history
If you own and use an Android device, then be sure that you are an easy target of state spying. The reason is that Android keeps a record of all your location history by default, meaning that you do not need to do any backup. By using Google Map, the police can easily access this data and track you for whatever reason they might have.
Monitoring using IMEI
Additionally, the IMEI of your mobile phone is another tool that the police can use to monitor your cell phone. Whenever you make a phone call, your mobile service provider takes note of your phone’s IMEI because it reflects in the details of the calls you make.
Using your phone number
As long as you are using your phone to make calls, you remain in a private mode from people who are not listening to your calls. But as far as your mobile service provider is concerned, your very mobile phone number is enough to betray you into the hands of state investigators.
Your service provider storage
If you thought that switching off your phone keeps you private, then it is better to think again. The reason is that when the police need to get your personal details, they can simply contact your mobile service provider. These telephony companies have this information because they connect you to a tower when you make a call or send a text message. This way, the company records all these details and can hand them over to the police for investigation should they request for it.
Monitoring using Stingray
Lastly, state agents can use this sophisticated method to track mobile phones randomly. But how does this technology work? Stingray is a technology that is designed to perform military spying in foreign missions. The system is a small device that the police can mount in a vehicle or an airplane to monitor cell phone activities. It works by impersonating a call tower so that it tricks mobile phones into thinking it is communicating with a phone tower by sharing its identity and voice call details. This way, the big brothers can tap into the communication of the device they are tracking and any other phone around it. However, this method has come under sharp criticism from human rights advocates and legal professionals citing the intrusion on people’s privacy.
A cloud of secrecy
But despite the fact that the police should obtain a warranty before using Stingray to spy on civilians, they are still using this technology secretly. The reason is that federal judges in the US can throw out any evidence the police present before them using evidence gathered from Stingray unless they have an official warranty.
But are the police or any other person legally and morally justified to spy on your cell phone? The answers may vary depending on the stakes at hand and on whether they do it lawfully or not.
