How can you detect if someone is using your cell phone to track you? Can you check for/delete cell spyware?

I’ve been hearing a lot about people using a person’s cell phone to track where they are and essentially spying on you with your own phone. How can you tell if you’re being tracked by your own phone and how can you keep it from happening to begin with?

The only way to 100% stop it is don’t have a cellphone.

The easiest way to track is using the built-in GPS system (mandated for E911 services so the dispatchers can locate you). This feature has 2 modes on most phones – E911 only and Location On. Location On allows it to monitor the location continously which is how the GPS navigation and other features like Verizon Chaperone work. E911 only leaves the GPS turned off, but activates it automatically if you call 911. The FCC mandated that all phones and carriers support this by a certain date in the near future, I don’t remember exactley when though.

The other way can’t be helped – it’s triangulating location from the cellular towers. The basic principle is using the various signal strengths of the cellular antennas to estimate where your phone is. If the phone is powered, it is always “communicating” with the network and can be triangulated and tracked by either software on the phone (like Google Maps) or the cellular company (as seen on programs like CSI).

The second method is the same way we track down unauthorized wireless networks at work – they triangulate the location based on strength recieved from our access points…and the location of people doing unautorized/illegal activities – triangulate the location of their laptop based on how strong a signal there is from which access point their connected to and what others they are in range of.

If you like consperacy theories, there’s plenty of reading about this…

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/05/05/cell-phone-spying-is-your-life-being-monitored/

Is My Cell Phone Bugged?: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Mobile Conversations Private $11.02 “Can someone…” * eavesdrop on my cell phone calls? * get my text messages almost as fast as I do? * access my voice mails? * steal my contacts list? * send fake messages from my phone? * make my phone dial someone else? * receive a text revealing the length of my calls? * receive a text alert whenever I use my phone? * send me texts using a fake number? * get my new number, although I …