Why Do Police Use This Method To Track Phones Instead Of Other Methods
Cell tower triangulation is a very accurate method for determining where a person or suspect could be, without the need to search through large areas. It can also help narrow down how far away from towers you are and how fast your phone is moving. This data is quickly accessible by the Police and gives them a good starting point in locating the person they need.
Your Battery Dies Quickly
A lot of things can cause a phones battery to drain quickly from having too many apps running to using an incompatible charger. However, if you notice a sudden drop in battery life or your phone is running hotter than usual, it could be a sign of a hacked phone. Hackers often use malicious apps to track users locations, and these apps can quickly drain your phones battery.
Can You Locate A Lost Cell Phone That Is Turned Off
Yes, it is now possible to locate a lost cell phone that is turned off. If it is an iPhone with iOS 13 or above, it will have the Find My service enabled that will track the devices location in real-time until it turns off. When the device turns off and turns back on, it will use the Send Last Location feature to update its location automatically.
This way, youll be able to track it down and recover it using the Find My app and iCloud. However, if the lost cell phone is an Android device, then it depends if the user enabled the Find My Device service previously.
Even if they did, then that feature will be of no use when the device is turned off. But, if it is turned on, then you can track it, play a sound on it, and also lock it remotely, even when it is not connected to the Internet.
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Turn On Airplane Mode
You can put your phone in airplane mode if you suspect that someone is using your online activity to track your device. This disconnects your phone from cellular networks and prevents some online services from accessing your location. However, you wont be able to access the internet or use key functions like calling and texting while your device is in airplane mode, so youll likely need to look for a more permanent solution.
Find Your Lost Android Phone
Finding a lost or stolen phone can get nerve-wracking, but with these helpful location services, you stand a good chance of locating it. Seeking help from the police is always an option that will greatly increase your chances of tracking your lost cell phone.
Obviously, losing a valuable piece of technology is just one side of the coin. With your phone gone, your personal details, banking information, contacts, and work documents are at stake. The faster you find it, the better.
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Do The Police Have A Right To Search Your Phone
This must be one of the most common questions we are asked as Lawyers. More and more often the police are asking people to hand over their electronic devices and individuals are perhaps left with the impression that they are under an obligation to do so.
When the police suspect someone is involved in a crime, whether theyve arrested this person or not, theyll sometimes ask the individual to hand over their electronic devices such as phones, tablets and even laptops. In some cases, police officers will simply take the individuals phone without their permission and look through it in search of any evidence they can use to incriminate them.
Do Phone Numbers Have Ip Addresses
Every device that is connected to a network, such as the internet, has what is known as a IP address, which is an abbreviation for Internet Protocol address. An Internet Protocol address is comparable to a phone number. Your phone number is a one-of-a-kind sequence of numbers that identifies your phone and allows other people to get in touch with you through your mobile device.
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What Phones Cannot Be Tracked
One of the most trustworthy mobile phones is the Purism Librem 5. Hardware-wise, the Purism Librem 5 includes three kill switches that can deactivate the sensors. These switches can be used to disable the sensors. These switches are where the cellular baseband, microphone, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth settings are located on the device. This mobile devices settings have all of the relevant trackers disabled by default.
What Happens When Your Phone Is In Airplane Mode
Airplane mode is a mobile setting that switches off your phones connection to cellular and Wi-Fi networks. You cant make phone calls, you cant text friends, and you cant use social media during your flight. Switching on Airplane mode makes the device OK to use in an airplane. You no longer have to turn it off.
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Can You Locate A Dead Phone
The phone might be switched off, or the battery might have gone dead. Its all one and the same when it comes to location tracking of a phone. Your best bet is to follow the guide above, depending on the type of phone you have. For example, use Find My if you were using an iPhone or Android Device Manager if you were using an Android phone to see the last tracked location, which will give you the best possible idea of where your phone could be.
3. Will removing SIM cards stop tracking?
We understand that some of the readers visiting this page wonder if phone tracking can be prevented by removing or swapping the SIM cards. The answer is NO. Cellular tracking is just one of the many ways of location tracking. Apps like Google Maps, iCloud have their own device tracking. Police and Mobile operator/service provider can use IMEI tracking to locate the mobile. Even Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can help with location tracking.
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Disable Location Tracking On Social Media Apps
Social media apps are great for connecting with friends and family or keeping up with your favorite celebrities, but their location tracking and data collection capabilities make them a goldmine for companies and hackers hoping to access your personal information. To prevent people from using apps like Facebook or Instagram to track your location or collect sensitive data, you should disable location tracking.
You can do this by turning off location sharing for social media apps in your phone settings. If you use Facebook or Snapchat, you can also go directly into the app settings and turn off location tracking or restrict who can see your location. This wont completely prevent the app from storing your location data, but it can make it more difficult for other users to access it.
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How To Locate A Lost Cell Phone That Is Turned Off Android
If you ever get lucky and your missing cell phone is still on, you can use Find My Device to locate it in real time. Otherwise, when your phone is offline, turned off, or out of battery, you will be able to see the last location where your phone can be found, using Find My Device. See the following steps:
With the Find My Device feature, you can easily find lost Android phones. You can also play a sound on your phone, secure your device with your PIN, and erase your data remotely to help find and protect your device.
Is It A Criminal Offence To Refuse To Give Your Pin Code
It can be a criminal offence to refuse to give your pin code, but only where a Section 49 notice has been served. Under Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, some branches of law enforcement can serve a notice upon you requiring you to disclose your pin code. Once the notice has been served, failure to provide the information requested can lead to you being prosecuted for a criminal offence. Where a Section 49 notice has been served, and you refuse to give your pin code, you could face a custodial sentence of up to two years. However this is only likely to take place where a serious crime is being investigated such as child sexual abuse, terrorism, or money laundering.
Local police forces such as the Metropolitan Police Service do not have the power to serve a Section 49 notice. You could receive one from one of the following law enforcement agencies:
- The National Crime Agency
- The Security Service
- Her Majestys Revenue and Customs
If a Section 49 notice has not been served, you are not obliged to give the police any information including your pin code. This is part of your right to remain silent. In some circumstances, you may wish to grant police access to your mobile phone in order to exonerate yourself. In other cases, giving the police access to your mobile phone data could just add fuel to the fire. Your criminal defence solicitor will be able to advise you on the circumstances of your case.
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Turn Off Your Device Location
GPS location is one of the primary means the police could use to track your current location. Its advisable always to turn it off whenever you are not making use of it. Apart from the law, an intruder or a hacker can quickly get rid of your phone when you turn on your device location unnecessarily.
Follow the steps below to turn off the location on your device.
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Use Find My Device To Locate Your Android Phone
Every Android device thats linked to a Google account can be tracked through Googles Find My Device service. It works similarly to Apples Find My app and allows you to not only ping your misplaced Android phone but also lock or erase its contents.
Assuming your phone has been switched off, you will only be able to view the location where it last pinged Google. That may be enough if your phone was lost rather than stolen. In the event someone finds and turns your phone on, you can easily ping, lock, or factory erase it using Find My Device.
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Can I Tell If My Phone Is Being Monitored
To check your mobile data usage on Android, go to Settings > Network & Internet > Data Usage. Under Mobile, youll see the total amount of cellular data being used by your phone. Use this to monitor how much data your phone is using while connected to WiFi. Again, high data usage is not always the result of spyware.
What Type Of Data Can Be Used Against Me
You may be surprised by the sheer amount of data that you have on your phone, laptop and social media accounts. Modern mobile phones are not just phones, theyre also mini computers, cameras, calendars, recorders, diaries and albums.
Once the police have access to these devices, they can learn everything about you from the videos youve been watching online to the things that made you argue with your ex partners.
This information could be used to incriminate you. For example, the police might use your GPS data to determine how fast you were travelling before a collision. They might use location data to identify whether or not you were at the scene of a crime when it happened. They can even retrieve deleted photos from years ago.
In a post called Electronic Devices and Law Enforcement: What You Need To Know, one of our lawyers, Jonathan Wall explained that people often assume that theres nothing incriminating on their phone, only to find that there is information relating to different crimes than theyre initially being investigated for. He wrote: A person might be arrested for a drugs offence and the police discover other data such as video or GPS data showing that they have driven dangerously and vice versa somebody may have been arrested following a road traffic collision and police discover an involvement in drugs.
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How To Locate A Lost Cell Phone That Is Turned Off Using Google
If your missing cell phone has the Find My Device app installed and is linked to your Google account, you can see the location history of your cell phone on Google Maps. Heres how:
View Location History of Your Phone on Google Map
Another simple way to get information about your missing device is to search find my phone on Google and heres how:
You will now see a checklist of what you can do to find your missing device and secure your information.
Search Find My Phone on Google
Q2 Can You Track A Phone If It’s Switched Off
No, you can install a few apps on your phone beforehand if you think you can lose it. Still, people are often irritated by these apps because they consume a lot of battery and power. Usually, a phone can be located if it’s on, but when the phone is switched off, with no sim card inserted, there may not be a way to find your missing phone.
Even if you contact your phone carrier company, they might not be able to help you. Because, aside from generating your phone bills, they are not authorized to gather your device’s location information. And if on-demand they do, they will get signals of the place where your device was last switched on.
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How Do Faraday Bags Work
Similar to the Faraday cage displayed above, a Faraday bag is made with conducting materials that is helpful in blocking out all of the external electric fields. So when any other electric signal tries to enter the bag, it gets distributed evenly on it and does not penetrate inside.
This way the hackers, thieves, or government agencies who are trying to track your phone or any other device will not be able to get to it because of the outer layer of the Faraday bag.
Info: Unlike other solutions weve given in this guide, this is the only one where you dont have to trust anyone or anything except the laws of physics which is why a Faraday bag is the most reliable way to prevent your phone and location data from being monitored and mined by third parties.
And added bonus: Faraday bags can keep other data and property safe too!
Track Your Lost Cell Phone With Its Imei Number
If you are unable to locate your lost cell phone using the method available above, you have only one option left- to track it using its IMEI number. However, for that, you will have to seek help from the local police.
IMEI is an acronym for International Mobile Equipment Identity which is a 15 digit unique number assigned to every cell phone. It is available at the back of the mobile and its box. This number works independently of the SIM card or network connection. Your device can be tracked using its IMEI number.
For that, youll have to file a lost, missing, or theft complaint about your cell phone at the local Police Station. The police will then track your device with its IMEI number and block it through the network provider. These rules differ in different countries though.
Also, you will find many tools and software claiming to track your device with its IMEI number. They are all fraud, scam, and fake, and you should never fall for that. Only the Police and the Network provider can track a device using its IMEI number.
These are all the options you have to locate a lost cell phone that is turned off. The range is very limited and it all believes on your luck. Anything else that you find on the Internet claiming to be trustworthy and using advanced technology which will help you to track your lost device is simply fake. Do not waste your time giving them a chance.
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How Does Phone Tracking By Police Work
For android phones in India
can police get a phone’s IMEI number just by using that phone’s number?
also suppose if a phone was moving around within few miles radius for few days and it was turned on several times in that duration. But now the phone is turned off permanently and only after phone is turned off police starts to try to track the phone for the first time using only the mobile number which was being used by that phone when it was turned on in last few days. So can police get all the locations where that phone was in those last few days?
Also if that phone’s user turns off permanently or throws away the phone and takes a new phone and inserts the same SIM card in that new phone, and only after that if police starts to try to track using that mobile no for the first time, can police even get all the location infos about where that old phone was for last few days before it was thrown away?