---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <2d9085a0-046d-49af-a0b3-ebb786bd0a64@googlegroups.com> Date: 24 Feb 2020 12:48:18 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: 911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone. It's a growing issue. On Monday, February 24, 2020 at 2:10:56 PM UTC-5, Monty Solomon wrote: > For 45 minutes after Shen called 911, five police officers, three > firefighters and a police dog searched in vain for the student. All > they had was a general area encompassing two apartment > buildings. They eventually gave up without finding Shen. My first question is if this was basically a sad tragic accident, but a very rare occurrence. I thought cell phones have GPS that the police can access. But I guess apartment complexes make that a challenge since they two dimension (sic) and high density. The flip side of this is how far do we want police tracking to go. Would we want the police to bang on every door in the apt buildings, and bust in those that don't answer? Do we want police to have the ability to track us via our cell phones everywhere we go? Do we want to return to landlines where the exact address is duly recorded and instantly displayed to police? Should our apartments have emergency call buttons? As an aside, there is a TV show, Chicago P.D. where they heavily use computers and telecom to track suspects. Likewise in Law & Order SVU. I don't know if those shows accurately represent technology today, but the privacy aspects are troubling. Chicago P.D. had one episode where their facial recognition incorrectly identified a suspect, and resulted in the suspect's unnecessary death. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5E54339F.1090202@panix.com> Date: 24 Feb 2020 15:35:43 -0500 From: "David" <wb8foz@panix.com> Subject: 911 operators couldn't trace the location <https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/22/student-died-911-call-location/ > > 911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone. > It's a growing issue. Is it? I read this piece of YKW* and immediately wondered who her source was, and why she wrote it. It's clearly not in her subject expertise. Background: The FCC has imposed location requirements on the carriers, and that costs them money. They can not now depend on GPS for several reasons: a) It does not always work indoors. b) It does not provide the PSAP with the floor or room. c) Being a significant power drain, users often have GPS turned off. (Is there anyone out there saying "My phone lasts too long without a charge"?) d) User may want it off, given the propensity of the carriers to exploit location data for their purposes; i.e. sell users locations to advertisers. e) Not all phones have GPS. Can you think of a flip phone or candy bar phone that does? So my first guess is a carrier lobbyist sold the reporter on it. If only they could depend on user's GPS, they don't need expensive timing methods. And if it fails, shrug.. "We tried!" My second guess was it was the FBI. We know how they feel about anyone doing something on a phone without their knowing all about it. (Just ask Tim Cook!) Could this be the precursor for mandatory GPS use? Or a "fix" so the FBI can enable your GPS remotely? Donno... ***** Moderator's Note ***** * In this context, I think "YKW" means "You Know What." I didn't know that the GPS in a cell phone could be disabled. When did that start? Who can do it? Why do you say "It does not provide the PSAP with the floor or room?" I though GPS could repost altitude, and that "GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.) radius under open sky."(1) Isn't that enough to get to a single floor in one building? Bill Horne Moderator 1. https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5e5443fd73bde_e9443fe4e2f9502c64201253@ip-10-0-0-212.mail> Date: 24 Feb 2020 21:45:33 +0000 From: "Takiyah and Mike, CWA" <action_Alert@remove-this.cwa-union.org> Subject: Watch: CWAers Shut Out of Senator Tillis' Office (From a direct email I received from the CWA. -bh) Here's what happened when we visited Tillis' office. CWA ACTIVIST ALERT Tell Senator Tillis to Support the PRO Act Last week, we visited Senator Thom Tillis' office in Charlotte, NC to deliver postcards from CWA members urging him to support the PRO Act - an important bill that would give union members and all workers more power. But they wouldn't even open the door for us and would only talk to us through an intercom. We were told to leave the postcards on the ground outside the office. This is not the way elected leaders should treat their constituents and shows that Tillis isn't interested in hearing from workers like us about growing power for working people. Can you send Senator Tillis a message telling him to do the right thing and support the PRO Act? Click here to watch the video of what happened. https://www.facebook.com/CWAUnion/videos/2952438474813120/ We must make it clear to our elected leaders that unless they fight for the interests of workers - not the interests of CEOs and the 1% - we will hold them accountable. Send Senator Tillis a message today and ask him to start listening to his constituents and support the PRO Act: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-senators-to-support-the-pro-act In unity, Takiyah Gaither, CWA Local 3645 Member Mike Spears, CWA Local 3604 Member CWA501 Third Street NW Washington, DC 20001cwa-union.org ***** Moderator's Note ***** I called Senator Tillis' Raleigh office, and spoke to Eli Brown. I asked Mr. Brown for the media relations person, and he told me they are only available at the senator's office in Washington, D.C. I asked why member of the CWA were denied entry to the senator's Raleigh office, and Mr. Brown told me that they work in a federal building which has other departments and courts in it, and speculated that perhaps the union members were denied entry by the security guards at the entrance. I told Mr. Brown that the online video which the CWA members took shows them standing in an empty corridor of a commercial building, (in fact, opposite the offices of a very well-known company), in front of a door marked as being Senator Tillis' office, and said I thought it unlikely that the armed guards at the federal building had denied them entrace. Mr. Brown took my phone number and promised to have someone call me, although he declined to say when they would do so. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Wed, 26 Feb 2020