[UA] Our modern mobile world

[Matthew Rowan Norwood]

  > 1. Person A calls Person B. Both have mobile phones. 
After the fact can a
  >    suitably authorized person find out:
  >      a) where person A was at the time of the call?

>  After the fact, someone might be able to find out 
>what relay station (or
>  whatever the term is) picked up the original signal. 
> Assuming records
>  are kept.


Interestingly, the new round of cellular standards 
include the ability to pinpoint the location of any 
phone in the network. Interesting, that is, if you find 
gross corporate invasion of privacy interesting.



>  Any cell phone people out there?

Here.

>  What
  >    info, if any, do they tell you about the caller? 
Can the network
  >    provider find out more?

>  I've never run in to any that says anything other 
>than "One ... new
>  message... is in your Inbox.  To listen to the first 
>message... press...
>  one...."  Still, I can't imagine why someone couldn't 
>implement caller
>  ID with a answering service.  It would just be 
>unwieldy.  "First ...
>  message... from... 4... 1... 2... 5... 5... 5... 1... 
>2... 4... 3...
>  <click>"  Talk about wasting time.  


You can find out exactly as much about a user from his 
voicemail as he wants -- the user records an outgoing  
message, as usual. He is usually also asked to recordhis 
name, which callers may hear depending on the setup. Of 
course, you're under no obligation to use your real name 
or any at all.

As for Caller ID, it's pretty standard on cell phones. 
If the person is another cell-phone user, they're 
identified by their pre-recorded name. If not, their 
number is stored in the system and can be accessed by 
pressing the right buttons. On my phone, a single button 
press returns the call automatically. A quick way to 
record the number for future reference is to return the 
call, then hang up quickly, storing the number on your 
phone in your list of recent outgoing calls.
   
Generally, web pages for cell providers give much of 
this information. 

Matt Norwood

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua