Fox News: cell phone (FBI can listen when your phone is off) & you can spy; track w/google earth

Wow! A Trojan piece of software like Back Orifice! For your phone!!! And it only takes 5 minutes and access to the phone to get it to work.

Sheesh!

I thought it was a secret back door installed by the phone manufacturers and not a script kiddie tool.

this explains why my battery dies even when my phone is off most of the time

If people want to listen to me serve customers, sing very badly in the shower, chastise my children or talk with my wife and friends, well, they can listen all they want and if they get anything out of it, good luck to them.

Maybe one day, they will hear me on top of the wife - that could be something. Honestly, the whole story is absurd and is merely media sensationalism through fear and ignorance.

There is no back door and no one can listen to you without you letting them gave access to the phone before hand.

People here are acting as though an Orwellian future is starting in a couple of days on the basis of a Fox News piece. And why is, everyone bags Fox News, until they put out a story that preys on the fear and ignorance of its viewers and everyone treats it is gospel?

i know this may be the worst example but is this not the same sort of technology Bruce Wayne used in the latest Batman to find the Joker (he was able to listen in on everyone's conversations). Bad example but still applicable.

NOTE: this is to add to the post of someone recommending "The Listening" as to a movie which shows this technology being used.

Originally posted by TortoiseKweek
I know in South Africa the cell phone companies were able to catch a killer by triangulating his position EVEN when his cell phone was off.

That was one case when this technology was actually put to good use.

However, it also makes one wonder, when can this be used against you for no real reason at all

Passive triangulation that's called. Some phones still send out a "I'm here" signal when they're off to any local towers so that when you turn it on you get a signal faster.

I should also point out that there was talk in the mobile phone industry a while back about putting batteries into phones that couldn't be disconnected. It was going to be marketed as an emergency device so that if you got lost they'd be able to find you.

Can't find a link for it atm but a friend in the industry told me about it and i'm sure it got onto the web somewhere.

Originally posted by goldbomb444
One of your videos was a hoax...I wouldn't go posting fake videos here...it will get you nowhere.

I didn't know that. Thanks. I'd only looked at the opening screen. The mods removed it. Thanks again.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I watched most of them, but on that one was just interested on the web address on the opening screen, which was valid. Thanks for catching it.

If you pull out the battery they can do nothing.
This has been discussed much in great technical detail in the past.
When there is no power, there is no phone.
Most phones when switched off can be remotely switched on again.
They are not really in off mode more of a standby mode.
But not without a battery.

reply to post by adrenochrome


I heard about it a few years ago, too.

Corporate executives became aware of it, and as a matter of course they take the batteries out of their phones during board meetings and other private meetings.

Some companies are beginning to mandate that cell phones are forbidden in their offices. Just like in the movie "The Dark Knight".

Originally posted by Areal51

Some companies are beginning to mandate that cell phones are forbidden in their offices. Just like in the movie "The Dark Knight".

Do you have any sources on this?

I know a lot of companies ban phones due to cameras and possible industrial espionage.

They can even track you using your very own cell phone because of the GPS inside the phone. The solution for that is to take the cell phone's battery out when the cell phone is not being used by you. I know that means possibly missing some phone calls. But at least they (the powers that be or others) can't track you when the battery is out.

As people have said this is already public knowledge and has been discussed quite a lot here on ATS.

It's scary to say the least, believe me people the very little portion of personal privacy we all once had is getting smaller and smaller by the day.

One thing about the video that makes me laugh is the reporter says "The FBI NOW have the ability to listen to you, even when your phones turned off" - This implies that they have somehow developed a technique that allows them to do this.

The reality I suspect is that they have been able to do this all along!

Originally posted by Death_Kron
The reality I suspect is that they have been able to do this all along!

Only if they have access to your phone and install the trojan software on it first.
If you listen to the second video, at 1:30 it says so.

If it was a secret back door, it would have been found by now and would be common knowledge on the intertubes.

Just think of Back Orifice for your phone.

Reading this thread, I see this topic has been discussed in length before. It is common knowledge the capabilities here is old news. The things mentioned here are rudimentary capabilities. In the 80's I saw with my own eyes a phone whereas you entered a target number and the unit became a clone. Any time the target was used the unit would ring. You could listen in on the conversation without either party being alerted. Bear in mind, this was the late 80s analog systems. I was shown this device by a member of a rock band backstage at a concert. He refused to tell me where he got it from.

Originally posted by darkmaninperth
Only if they have access to your phone and install the trojan software on it first.

No. REMOB capability is built-in to cell phones, by design, with no physical access to the phone required:

If ordered to do so, mobile telephone operators can also tap any calls, but more significantly they can also remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call, giving security services the perfect bugging device.
www.ft.com...

Pfft. This is effectively and ad for these phone tracking services.
I remember seeing this same sort of report at least a year ago.
Same deal...they spoke to a private eye who detailed how to go about tracking a cell phone etc.
Not a bad message to spread around or anything, but hardly a scoop which furthers my lack of faith in the credability or how contemporary FOX is as an information source.
Not to shoot the messenger or anything...

Originally posted by raoulduke666
...its kind of disgusting how Big Brother or another can listen to conversations when my phone is OFF!

Yes, it is. I know I can set the alarm on mine and turn it off and it will still activate, so a lot is still ticking inside it when it's off. Sort of makes you wonder why they suddenly start transmitting for no reason also (leave it near a stereo system). Someone told me "it's changing towers", but I don't see the need when the phone is just sitting there not moving.

look this is pretty simple...if you don't want to be spied upon, don't say anything that will get you into trouble and don't give out personal info that you wouldn't want the public to know.

Originally posted by NuclearPaul
Sort of makes you wonder why they suddenly start transmitting for no reason also (leave it near a stereo system). Someone told me "it's changing towers", but I don't see the need when the phone is just sitting there not moving.

It's called a location update. Your SIM card ( on GSM systems ) has a little file, which holds a single integer value telling the phone how often it is to do this. The actual data being send is a kind of a handshake with the tower.

It is by using this location update feature that mobile phones determine weather you've just returned from lets say abroad and it should switch back to it's home network or not. The default setting is I believe about every hour, or was it 30 minutes, but can be taken down to as low as every couple of minutes remotely on OTA (Over the air ) capable networks.

Kind regards.

Just curious does anyone know if putting the phone into something like a Faraday Cage would block the transmitting. Not to worried about this myself was just a thought that got me curious.