Why Your Phone Can Still Be Tracked (Even When GPS is Turned Off)

Posted on February 22, 2019 by admin

The technology behind tracking and also finding a lost phone is the Global Positioning System or GPS in short. It is the small chip inside your smartphone that communicates with an array of communication satellites that then tells you where you are and where you want to go. For some phone, it is called the “Location Services” function.

However, most of the smartphone in the market does respect the need for privacy for their users. Also, therefore, it enables the user to switch off the GPS and location services, and as a result, your phone will not be tracked. Alternatively, is it still can be traced?

The quick answer to this is yes; your smartphone can still be tracked even when you have turned off your GPS and location services. This is because smartphone technology has evolved and become more integrated into our daily activities. Therefore, the more frequent you use your mobile phone, the more you leave what we called digital breadcrumbs or digital footprints.

DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS / DIGITAL “BREADCRUMBS”

If you disable the GPS, you will not be tracked in real-time. However, our smartphones leave digital “breadcrumbs” all over the internet in which can be traced back to your phone. The digital “breadcrumbs” are basically a footprint that you left when you engaged or used certain services on the internet which identifies you in a specific time and location. The digital footprints can be in many forms such as cookies and also input and output for your smartphone sensors.

SMARTPHONE SENSORS

Besides the GPS chip, your smartphone also has other sensors such as the accelerometers where it is used to track your body movement for fitness and even gaming. Other sensors such as the barometer, magnetometer and gyroscope have its use and function in your smartphone. Each of these sensors is becoming much more advanced and accurate in the coming years as technology, and the internet evolved.

Because of these sensors readily available in your smartphone, by combining some of these sensors, with the help of an installed app, it can accurately figure out your location without the need of GPS. Based on research by a researcher at Princeton University, it is possible to track your phone by using these sensors by only using an app. Read the article here.

HERE ARE THREE WAYS HOW YOU CAN TRACK PHONE WITHOUT USING GPS

CELLPHONE TOWER

Your mobile phone regularly transmits a signal as it approaches a cell tower. This is to notify its location so that whenever a call or data that needs to be transferred to your phone, the cell network operator would able to send it to the nearest cell tower to your phone. Therefore, when your smartphone is on, it is always pinging the nearest cell tower.

The methods use in locating your phone using cell towers is by using the triangulation method. By knowing which signal emits the strongest and lowest between your smartphone and the cell tower, the network operator can pinpoint your location.

So, if you do lose your phone and your phone does not have a GPS function, it is best that you request assistance from a network service provider. As long as the SIM card and IMEI number are in place on your phone, it is possible for the cell network operator to help and track that phone.

Read here on our previous article on how to track phone using IMEI number.

BROWSER OR APP COOKIES

If you usually browse the internet using your mobile phone, you would notice request from the browser to identify your current location. This includes the airline’s website or travel/hotel website where they require you to specify the location of your current place. Once you are given consent to the request, the browser will keep your location in their record.

Can someone tracked your phone without gps

There are also apps that require your location each time you want to use the app. For example, apps like Waze or WhatsApp. Even though you have to turn your GPS off, the app will not be able to track your phone real-time. However, the app or the browser cookies does have your digital “breadcrumbs” from the last time you use the app or visited the website.

One example is by looking at your Google account. This is one of the services where you can use to track your digital footprints that have been left by your mobile phone.

So, if you are interested to see if your devices are leaving digital footprints, here are the steps.

Step 1

Go to https://myaccount.google.com

Click at the “Security” at the left section of that page

Step 2

Scroll down until you see “Your Devices” section. It will list any of your devices last location that is linked to your account.

Your google account will only remember your device if you have any of google app in your phone. For example, Gmail or Google Earth app that was installed on your phone.

NATIONAL DATABASE OF STOLEN PHONES

Some countries do have a database of stolen phones. So, if you do lose a phone, you can report the phone’s IMEI number into the database. The database is usually linked to the police, and whenever the cops find a stolen phone, it can cross-check the phone with the database.

You can check an example of a national database for stolen items such as in Australia here and also in the United States here.

The only thing needed for cross-checking a phone in this type of database registry is the IMEI or IMSI number. Read here if you want to know more about your phone’s IMEI number.

So, there you have it. Three ways how you can track your phone even when the GPS or location services is turned off. Please also read our previous article on how you can trace a non-smartphone.

Please leave us a comment below on how do you think other people can still track your phone even without the GPS function.

3 Ways How to Track Mobile Phone Using IMEI Number

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Posted on October 11, 2018 by admin

Over the years, there have been new methods now on how you can track your phone using IMEI. Here is the updated version of the method with some new few tips that you can do to track your mobile phone using IMEI number.

The last time we wrote about how to track the phone using IMEI number is way back in 2013. Some of the tips we offer at that time are still valid nevertheless. Check out the article here.

The mobile phone nowadays is equipped with GPS and also have a pre-installed app that can track your cell phone easily if you lost or got your phone stolen. However, sometimes having this advanced features is not enough. So, what happens if you just lost your phone and you could not track it using the pre-installed app such as Find iPhone and Android Device Manager? The second best option is to track your phone using your phone’s IMEI number.

WHAT IS IMEI NUMBER?

IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. It is a unique identifier for your phone in which phone manufacturer will need to assign it to all phone being manufactured. It is a 15 to 17 digit of numbers in sequence. Imagine a plate number or chassis number for your car.

Each car will have a different number as a way to identify them from other same car models. The same applies to your phone too. Your phone might have a similar model and colour, but the IMEI number is unique to every phone that has ever been manufactured in the world.

HOW TO FIND IMEI NUMBER IN YOUR PHONE?

Here are two quick ways how you can find your phone’s IMEI number or read here for more details

FIRST OPTION

Step 1
Go to your phone keypad

Step 2

Type *#06#

A string of IMEI number will appear on your screen. This method applies to all types of phone.

SECOND OPTION

Step 1
Go to your phone General Settings

Step 2
Go to About

Step 3
Search for IMEI number in the list of information

HOW TO USE IMEI NUMBER TO TRACK YOUR PHONE

The IMEI number has one important purpose, and that is to identify your phone in a cell network operator. With thousands of mobile phones connected in the same time as yours on the cell phone network, the network operator will use your SIM card number and also IMEI number as a valid identifier to your phone to differentiate from other connected phones. This way the network operator would know your cell phone usage for billing purposes as well as your phone’s location at the same time so that they can send and received any calls for you that they received from their network.

So, in a scenario, if you do lose your phone or got it stolen, as long as the SIM card is there; your phone is on, and the phone battery does not run out, your phone will continue to send a transmission to the nearest cell phone tower. Even if the SIM card is taken out, the cell tower can still identify your phone using the IMEI number of your phone through the Equipment Identity Register or EIR. The EIR is a database commonly GSM network used to list all valid mobile equipment that is using their network.

So, if you now understand what IMEI is and how it is used, here are the steps if you want to track the phone using IMEI number

1. REPORT LOST PHONE TO THE AUTHORITIES

This step is essential to provide legal documentation that your phone is lost. This will help you in the second step.

What do you need to report? Among the critical information you need to provide to the police are:-
i. IMEI number
ii. SIM card number
iii. Phone’s model, brand and colour
iv. Any other unique physical identifier for your phone
v. Where do you think you lost it
vi. Where do you think it got stolen

2. REPORT LOST PHONE TO YOUR CELL PHONE NETWORK PROVIDER

As explained earlier on, your SIM card number and IMEI number is the unique identifier for your cell phone network service operator. Using the Equipment Identity Register (EIR), a cell phone network operator can blacklist the stolen phone from using their network. That’s why it is vital that you make a police report first so that you can show this legal documentation to your cell phone service provider so that they can act.

The cell phone service provider can also help you to locate where your phone is if the phone does transmit an active signal to their nearest cell tower. However, a disclaimer here is that not all countries and cell phone network service provider will help you to do the blacklisting and also to track your phone using the IMEI method. It needs a clear government policy of allowing this to happen in certain countries. So, that brings us the last option.

3. REPORT LOST PHONE TO A NATIONAL DATABASE REGISTRY FOR STOLEN ITEMS

Another method that has grown popular over the last few years are the establishment of a national database for stolen goods and properties. The way this database works is that if you submit your IMEI number there and report it as stolen or lost, the database will keep your data as a record.

If someone naively did buy your stolen phone from the thief and checked the IMEI number in the database, it will instantly alert the buyer that the phone was stolen property. Some of the database in certain countries also link this to the police database so that law enforcement can immediately act on it.

Here is some example in certain countries where this database have been developed to help customers retrieve back their phone using IMEI number.

In Australia, they have created a central database called the EIE Administration Node that helps to check the status of your phone by just providing an IMEI number.

In the United States, an organisation such as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, CTIA offers free services to check if the phone you just bought was stolen or not. You can check their website here. You can submit your IMEI number there, and if someone did buy your stolen phone and check it in the database, the law enforcement could immediately investigate it.

If you are in the United Kingdom, similar services like this are the Immobilise website. The database has been there for a while, and the services do not limit to cell phone recovery only but also to all stolen goods and property.

So, there you have it. A step by step guide on how you can track your phone using the IMEI number. Please leave us a comment if you think this article might have been useful for you and can help you trace your lost phone.

Read also our previous article on the ultimate guide on how to track your lost phone.

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Why Your Phone Can Still Be Tracked (Even When GPS is Turned Off)

3 Ways How to Track Mobile Phone Using IMEI Number

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