Can you be 'tracked' whilst using a GPS..?

jimbo said:
Maybe this link
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That is even scarier, thankfully just like Mongo I am but a small pawn in the game of life, so hopefully noone considers me to be a threat to world peace etc etc
 
Macfie said:
The max speed is also prone to giving the odd 'spike' in my experience. On a run last weekend when I was never above 70, the max speed showed 128 mph. I noticed the speed figures jump momentarily when I was actualy doing about 30. :eek:

M
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You're dead right. Some while ago I went through a long tunnel in the alps. On regaining the signal the max speed went to 545mph!! So I've left it at that setting. Any plod that are clever enough won't get any satisfaction here. Oh, and my "track log" is always off.
 
I know where the confusion may be comming from, I am involved with vehicle tracking, and most use GPS for the positional information.

Unless manufacturers fitted GPRS modems to our navigation devices, there is no way of communicating the time/distance/speed/location, and even if you could get that detail, it would have to be imported into software that could do something with the information

The company I work for do have a system that incorporates navigation and messaging through a Navman iCN650 - M-Nav 650, but this does not work as a stand alone satnav (as the theives who keep nicking them from our customers will find out) the GPS is drawn from the tracking unit which tracks regardless of weather or not the navigation is plugged in.
 
nav18tor said:
I know where the confusion may be comming from, I am involved with vehicle tracking, and most use GPS for the positional information.

Unless manufacturers fitted GPRS modems to our navigation devices, there is no way of communicating the time/distance/speed/location, and even if you could get that detail, it would have to be imported into software that could do something with the information

The company I work for do have a system that incorporates navigation and messaging through a Navman iCN650 - M-Nav 650, but this does not work as a stand alone satnav (as the theives who keep nicking them from our customers will find out) the GPS is drawn from the tracking unit which tracks regardless of weather or not the navigation is plugged in.
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You don't work for TOAD do you by any chance??? :)
 
Dickieboy said:
Blackspot makers of the Road Angel Navigator say somewhere in their blurb that if you ever report your navigator stolen they will render it useless to the person who stole it via the satellite link, and come to think of it if you don't keep up your subscription they'll do the same to you, so they must be able to individually target the device.
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Doesn't necessarily mean they transmit a signal directly to the device; they might just broadcast a general "Unit XXXXXXXX to shut itself down" which all units would pick up and ignore if they're not that specific unit.
 
xpi0t0s said:
Doesn't necessarily mean they transmit a signal directly to the device; they might just broadcast a general "Unit XXXXXXXX to shut itself down" which all units would pick up and ignore if they're not that specific unit.
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Exactly. Uses the same functionality as Sky when enabling / disabling Sky viewing cards and authorising viewing packages. They broadcast from the Satellite, with a specific target ID which is ignored by all unmatched hardware.
 
DodgyGeeSer said:
Exactly. Uses the same functionality as Sky when enabling / disabling Sky viewing cards and authorising viewing packages. They broadcast from the Satellite, with a specific target ID which is ignored by all unmatched hardware.
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I had n't thought of that though it now seems pretty obvious, but when all said and done you've targeted albeit by ignored so to speak. Though that would n't give your position away.
 
DodgyGeeSer said:
Exactly. Uses the same functionality as Sky when enabling / disabling Sky viewing cards and authorising viewing packages. They broadcast from the Satellite, with a specific target ID which is ignored by all unmatched hardware.
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I can understand a targeted broadcast from a SKY or similar satellite - but a commercial organisation being able to transmit from one of the USAF GPS constellation?
 
I doubt that "tracking GPSRs" use the GPS signals for the tracking part of their function - they will use something like the mobile phone network, or a private network.
 
Kritou said:
I can understand a targeted broadcast from a SKY or similar satellite - but a commercial organisation being able to transmit from one of the USAF GPS constellation?
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It's actually done all of the time, and is not terribly expensive.
Consider all of those companies offering broadband via Satellite. What happens is, you make a request from your home computer (say for access to a specific website like UKGSER.com), this request is sent to the internet access supplier (say by 56k modem), the internet access supplier retrieves the website data and sends it via satellite, is picked up by your satellite dish, and sent to your PC via a satellite PC card.

In Ireland there are plenty of Internet access via Satellite providers, though it tends not be be very popular, as they are for the most part one-way, meaning you have to send your upload traffic by some other means (e.g. dial-up). Access can be as cheap as 30 euro per month. There are two way providers, but it tends to be a lot more expensive. Satellite of course suffers from: Lag (can't use VOIP), bad weather!, expensive hardware, birds!

Oops, long winded response!
 
My point, perhaps badly put, was that the US military seem unlikely to allow any access to their rather antiquated but but highly important Navstar (?)constellation. As far as I know civilian/commercial GPSRs only receive from these satellites, so how would a stolen unit be targeted with a specific instruction?
 
As I said, the type of unit that can be remotely controlled will have a mobile phone chipset in it, controls (and tracking information) will be sent to/from the control centre by SMS or something similar. You can get off the shelf components to do this for about a quid probably :)

There won't be any third party signals in the datastream from the GPS satellites. Yes technically it's possible (as DodgyGeeSer says, satellite broadband has been around for a while) but for one thing it's a military infrastrcute, they ain't gonna let anyone play with their signals. For another thing I doubt there is spare bandwidth available for such trivial (to the military) uses.
 
But a Garmin/Tom Tom GPS can't transmit anything, all it's doing is looking for satalites in the sky and when it see's three or more it triangulates a position and relates that to the maps you've installed on it.

Or have I missed somthing here :)
 
The "grey" comes from the fact that if a radio reciever is recieving something, then it's also transmitting something... (very faint, and on a different frequency)... It's how they work...

This faint signal is not really usable in today's world full of antennas.... Unless you are perhaps Osama, out in the wilderness... with the NSA spending billions monitoring the airwaves looking for you...

But back in the early days (WWII, Vietnam) listening to a radio reciever was an excelent way to give your location away... Not as many recievers in the world then, and I suspect the local oscillator re-broadcast was worse...

Al...
 
Whatton said:
But a Garmin/Tom Tom GPS can't transmit anything, all it's doing is looking for satalites in the sky and when it see's three or more it triangulates a position and relates that to the maps you've installed on it.

Or have I missed somthing here :)
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There's two things being discussed here, that's the confusion :)

1 - it's (at least in theory) possible to track an electronic device (like a GPSR) by using a very sensitive antenna and looking for radiation "leaking" from the circuits, James Bond stylee.

2 - Some GPSRs have extra circuitry built in to allow them to communicate with a service provider via SMS or something similar. Tracker devices for cars will use this - the GPS part of the device tell it where it is, and then it basically sends a text message back to base. In effect this is a GPSR and a mobile phone integrated into the same box. It'd also be possible to construct such a device so that the GPS part of it wouldn't work unless it got a particular message via SMS - hence the way that providers of "enhanced" navigation services can control the navigation device remotely.
 
charlie b said:
............ when you have/use a GPS you can be monitored by 'the authorities' who can follow/track you wherever you go.................So is this just more paranoid bollox or am I missing something obvious?

Charlie
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If you've got nothing to hide, why should you be remotely interested and more to the point, why should they be interested in tracking you? :nenau
 
Blue Sweeper said:
If you've got nothing to hide, why should you be remotely interested and more to the point, why should they be interested in tracking you? :nenau
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I line the inside of my helmet with fresh tinfoil just before I take the bike out for a spin.. Just to be sure. :D
 
Macfie said:
The max speed is also prone to giving the odd 'spike' in my experience. On a run last weekend when I was never above 70, the max speed showed 128 mph. I noticed the speed figures jump momentarily when I was actualy doing about 30. :eek:

M
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Today 383mph :thumb

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:D
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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