Couldn’t they just find out via triangulation (which is a way that high precision location things work already, by using 3 points of a known location like antennas and looking at the connection strength to each tower)
They would already know to a very high degree, because the device associates with a specific cell tower, and the cell size is quite small for 5g networks, especially in cities. I don’t see why they would need a more accurate info.
This is disingenuous as to be connected to a cellular network means that you can be found, especially with the cell tower grid getting tighter and tighter due to higher and higher frequencies.
Edit: This definitely helps, but thinking it will stop the carrier from getting your location is not accurate. Your phone has a very weak radio transmitter and therefore only very nearby towers will be able to hear it and respond to it. The higher the radio frequency, the closer these towers must be to you in order to hear your phone. So the carrier can easily triangulate which three towers can hear your phone and draw your location from that.
They address that in the last paragraph. I wonder however if this does much. I mean it’s just one of several modes and then certain requirements must be met, too. What would carriers send such requests for in non-emergency scenarios anyways?
Sure. In urban environments the cell tower should be able to determine your location down to a few meters or at least tens of meters. They know the angle from which antenna is in use. And I think I read an article or paper that newer technologies also compensate for the signal delay introduced by the speed of light and your distance… So the phone can hit the slot in the multiplexing correctly. So distance from the cell tower should be known to both parties somewhat precisely. No “active” positioning requests needed. I think requesting the location during an 112 / 911 call has also saved some lives already. I’m not sure if it pops up automatically for the dispatchers, though.
Starting in Android 15, radio vendors will be able to add support for Android’s new location privacy HAL, which can tell the radio not to share location data for any non-emergency requests.
A request not to share it is not control, it’s just a request. So any law enforcement seeking your location would receive it anyway
That can get you close, but there’s still errors. This one, if I’m understanding correctly, actually gives your full GPS location with distance above ground (for apartments, etc).
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