Cell Phone Companies and Location Tracking

German politician, Malte Spitz, was curious about how location tracking works, and what the cell phone companies really do know. So, he went on a quest; to find out what information his cell phone company, Deutsche Telekom, had on him. The company recorded everything they could for six months and the results appalled Spitz. Not only could the company trace his location by longitude and latitude coordinates, but could depict whether he was on a train, in the air, texting rather than calling, checking email, and even sleeping. It's as simple as that - all a cell phone carrier has to do is hit the "record" button.

 

Cell phone companies in the US, such as Verizon, decline to explain how much information is collected. However, we do know they are encouraged to keep track of its customers for law enforcement and safety reasons. The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration have made many arrests based on cellphone records.

 

Malte Spitz's goal was raise an awareness of location tracking and how it works, which he certainly did. Although this may be a little scary, click here to see an interactive map of the information retained during Spitz's six months.