vodaphones tracking gps information by court order

[dailysmile]

in connection with a traffic offence to prove 

i was not at the locus it would be useful if i could 

obtain information about my phones whereabouts 

as its always with me

i beleive vodaphone have this type of information 

in their databases , ... possibly only available by court 

order

could anyone confirm that this info is available

and how long it is held for , this relates to an incident 

in april 2013

does anyone have a contact number for the relevent department 

as 191  is pretty sparse on options

[drey_p]

Hi there

I don't believe that Vodafone hold the GPS information from your phone. There may be third party apps that do that and store it in a database for you.

The location info that Vodafone have is more general, as the phones whereabouts are calculated from the nearest transmitter. This gives a very general radius of where the phone is and not a specific location as GPS would provide where accuracy is within a few feet. I also don't believe that Vodafone would have this information as it is over a year old and to hold all that sort of info on every one of the 19 million users would need a huge amount of storage.

[dailysmile]

wow thanks for yuor swift reply , it does not really provide any definitive information though

i have heard of tracking information being called in kind of big cases for murders etc , so this leads me 

to beleive this information * IS AVAILABLE *  , and its quite accurate 

a quick google brings up this which seems to state that the information from vodaphone 

could be very accurate 

http://www.wldas.org.uk/information/mobile-phones/mobile-phone-tracking-information/

i suppose i really need defintive information before i give up on this chase but thanks 

for swift reply 

if anyone knows a number at vodaphone office for a particular department that 

can give me a definitive answer i would appreciate this as it will cost a healthy 

sum nodoubt for to even apply for a court orderjust  to be told its not available 

i would rather investigate first 

it might seem like a BIG hammer to crack a nut of a small traffic offence 

but when your innocent with the might of the law upon you, i just cant 

bring myself to plead guilty although it would be a lot cheaper and less stressful to

do so

[dailysmile]

interesting ...........

this appears to indicate that call data and cell site infiormation IS available but possibly only held for 12 months 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmhaff/910/910we23.htm

3.  Cell-Site Analysis—Identifying the location and movements of mobile phones according to their historical call records.

2.  NETWORK PROVIDER DATA

  2.1  In the UK the main network providers (data owners) are O2, Orange, T-Mobile, 3Three (Hutchinson) and Vodafone. Virgin Mobile also generates and retains billing data, but its backbone network provision (actual cell-sites) is provided by T-Mobile.

  2.2  These network operators record the details of the call events to and from a mobile phone. This data can include the identity of the cell-site or cell-site sector that a call was routed from/to.

  2.3  At present there is a variance in both the level of data recorded by each operator and also in the length of time that data is retained.

  Under current practices data is retained for no more than 12 months. However, variances can mean that historical call events including data for text message exchange may only be held for six months or less in the case of certain account types (ie contract, pre-pay, pay-as-u-go).

....

2.5  Each of the main network operators maintains a department to provide historical data or court liaison for law enforcement purposes. These departments supply historical call records and details of cell-site locations on a chargeable basis.

HOW DO I FIND  THAT DEPARTMENTS NUMBER FOR VODAFONE ???

[Northern-dj]

Vodafone is not aloud to store GPS info, The reason is because linking data to an individual person falls under the Data Protection Act 1998, which determines the rules for the collection, use and sharing of an individual's information. 

Yes the Police can get a court order and ask Vodafone for the current Location of the phone and hope the GPS is turned on other wise they only get the Tower location

Mobile phone also have to comply with the above rule unless you have a app and concent to that app tracking you

But even then that can not be given under a UK court as evidence

If the police could do what you want it would help massivly in missing persons cases

but it can also be used in the wrong hands for snooping

this covers people that do not want to be folloed by big brother

the EU is pushing for black boxes on cars, saying if there stolan they can be found see

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625244/EU-bug-car-UK-tracker-chips-Ministers-admit-powerles...

But tracking a car is avalable now and can be by passed the fear for people is GPS spead is still not accurate and this would give free hand for remote speeding fines 

This is the main reason why GPS data in a court is only used as a guide only and not as Proof, any solicitor that knows about gps can check on cases that have come up in court over this.

[dailysmile]

sorry nothern you clearly have not read my previous post and the link

its from the houses of parliement , the data is definately stored , and its available , and each 

phone company has its own deprtment to deal with people wishing to gain access to that information

[GojuSuzi · Accepted solution]

It is available, but only after some very specific legal boxes get ticked. You would need the police to get a warrant/court order and contact the network's liaison team, there is no team that can give the info out to any random member of the public, even the account holder.

If you have tracking turned on in device manager (android) or findmyiphone (apple), then you may be able to see the info on the relevant website, although this is a bit less likely after such a long time.

Also, all this would prove is that your phone wasn't there, there's no way of it proving you were physically with the device at the time, so I'd be wary of relying on this info as the cornerstone of your defence.

[Northern-dj]

My post was answering your question

They don't store Data yes they can track but the courts have to be asked

The houses of parliament debate was a debate this happened when whistle blowers said that Networks were keeping information

a parliamentary comity asked Networks what this was and its to comoly with the Location rulling only and all the info was Location bassed on the phones IMEI but it was distroyed

Both Apple and Google do Keep this info and you have to accept Both services for this to Happen

But like i said This can not be used as Evidence

If you belive that this infomation will help then you need to ask Your solicitor Vodafone can not tell you anything

The Parliamentary Comity were Happy that Networks were not Flowting the Data Protection act

But added that this will need to be Monitored and Reviewed by Offcom at a Later date

[Retired-Sarah]

Hi dailysmile,

This information can only be requested from and provided to the police.

You can find all of the ways to get in touch with us here.

Thanks,

Sarah

[hrym]

That's an interesting one!   Would the police be interested in requesting information that disproved their own theory?   I think the OP has the need of a solicitor.  Strictly speaking, of course, the details would only confirm the position of the phone, not the owner, so I rather suspect further corroboration would be needed.  Usage of a PIN-protected device would help, possibly.