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
posted January 10, 2009 at 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 !!!!!
posted January 10, 2009 at 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.
posted January 10, 2009 at 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.
posted January 10, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I wonder if it’s time to switch to a prepaid phone
They can track that stuff too.
posted January 10, 2009 at 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.