Reformed Chicks Blabbing

Police locate kidnapped girl using GPS in her cell phone

Saturday January 10, 2009

Categories: Crime, Technology

This sounds like something you'd see on CSI:

A nine-year-old girl, allegedly kidnapped by her grandmother, has been found using a mobile phone signal and Google Street View.

A police officer and a firefighter in Athol, Massachusetts, joined forces after authorities were alerted that Natalie Maltais had been taken.

Officers used GPS in the girl's mobile phone to find her approximate location.

They fed the co-ordinates into Google Street View, pinpointing a hotel where the child was subsequently found.

[...]

Since 2005, US law says that mobile phone providers must be able to locate 67% of callers within 100 metres and 95% of callers within 300 meters.

This requirement has led to GPS capability in most new mobile phones in the US.

The phone company has to cooperate with the police when there's a missing person or when a life is in danger and in this case it ended well but I'm concerned about the invasion of privacy aspect of this, there's the potential for abuse such as a widening of the scope of inquiry. I'm not thrilled that my movements can be monitored by a GPS system in my phone! That's too much information available to be misused. I wonder if it's time to switch to a prepaid phone :-)

"He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither." Benjamin Franklin

Advertisement
Comments
me
January 10, 2009 11:17 AM

This is really a very effective and usefull tool to locate a missing person. Phone Companies are not going to provide information to just anyone, there are proper procedures to protect ones privacy,However; in an event like this it becomes very useful and may save anothers life. Think about this, if it was someone you loved, mother, sister, brother or child would you want the proper authorities to utilize all the resources possible to finr that person before it was too late??? I know I would !!!!!

ZZ
January 10, 2009 11:21 AM

Kidnapped by her grandmother? How does THAT work? The guardians foster parents?)allowed her access to the girl. This doesn't sound like a real "kidnapping", but maybe a grandmother trying to take the girl out of an abusive situation, or maybe a custody dispute that she got involved in. Still illegal, of course, but not the sinister thing implied at first.

What irritates me is all the Amber Alerts that go out when "Weekend Dad" is 15 minutes late bringing the kids home. They are so numerous that they make weather radios useless for their original purpose.

doc
January 10, 2009 4:06 PM

Yeah, the phone companies have procedures in place... Just like when they gave info the Georgie and company w/o warrants or any kind of court approval. Gotta love those phone company privacy procedures.

Moonshadow
January 10, 2009 9:02 PM

I wonder if it's time to switch to a prepaid phone :-)

They can track that stuff too.

Charles Cosimano
January 10, 2009 9:12 PM

Don't worry. It won't be long before a pocket jammer is available that will block the cell phone gps signal unless it is actually in a call. And I would think a mylar bag would be sufficient to block the signal but that needs to be tested. But in any event, prepaid is obviously the way to go because then you can simply activate it with a false name and address and use the cards to reload it.

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.



Please type the text you see in the box below to verify your post and help us prevent spam. You have a limited time to type - you may wish to compose your comment in a separate document and paste it here upon completion.

Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Advertisement

Search This Blog

feed icon Subscribe

RSS Feed

Receive updates from Reformed Chicks Blabbing

About Reformed Chicks Blabbing

Calendar

Advertisement

Advertisement


About Beliefnet

Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness. More about Beliefnet.

Legal

Copyright © Beliefnet, Inc. and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. Constructed by Beliefnet.

Advertisement

Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.