High resolution tracking through cell phones
It appears that a company is now selling a tool that will allow high resolution tracking of the motion of customers through stores and malls by triangulating on their cell phones. The technique involves tracking the phone through its globally unique IMEI number. The company claims that this is anonymous because only the phone company knows the correspondence between the IMEI and the customer’s real name.I have very little faith in that protection. There are simply too many ways one might extract that kind of information, which could then become widely available. One could even connect the location information and IMEI data to checkout records. After a couple of trips, it would be fairly unambiguous. This is certainly clever, but disturbing. There is no opt-in or opt-out, and the tracking takes place passively with no ability for the user to detect that it is going on.Shops track customers via mobile phone - Times Online
- Lance Cottrell
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Well I have another take on this. Frankly it is easy to by-pass as “unique IMEI number” which is usually found printed on the phone underneath the battery and is placed there a bit like car tracking so that it can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network which is a good thing. For example, if a mobile phone is stolen, the owner can call his or her network provider and instruct them to “ban” the phone using its IMEI number. This renders the phone useless, regardless of whether the phone’s SIM is changed.
Unlike the Electronic Serial Number or MEID of CDMA and other wireless networks, the IMEI is only used to identify the device, and has no permanent or semi-permanent relation to the subscriber. Instead, the subscriber is identified by transmission of an IMSI number, which is stored on a SIM card which can (in theory) be transferred to any handset. However, many network and security features are enabled by knowing the current device being used by a subscriber.
HENCE THE IMSI is not the same as the IMEI !!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Further … part II you say “The company claims that this is anonymous because only the phone company knows the correspondence between the IMEI and the customer’s real name” which as I have tried to show is just not correct.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Thanks, that is great information! I appreciate your jumping in as I would never claim to be a cellular technology expert.