According to this site.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004272.php

Boy they are really trying to cram in the Judicial activism this week aren't they?

Is the Bar Association giving a prize to the judge who comes up with the craziest horseshit or something?

If I understand the article, they are talking about tracking "pings" - i.e., what tower the call is relayed through, which gives you a (very) approximate location for the phone. That information is in the possession of the phone company (a third party), and I used to subpoena it routinely when I worked for the government and a BG's location was of interest.

I believe that this is the technology Sprint Nextel uses to give GPS location info on the iDEN handsets.

There's been urban legends of jealous husbands watching cheating wives (it's easy to setup), suspicious fathers watching lying party-girl daughters, and employers finding their key players in strip clubs instead of "on the job."

Hmmm.

All cell phones made today have GPS chips in them.  This was mandated by the FCC for 911 emergency purposes.   This was done to allow 911 operators to know the exact location of the phone, and supposedly the owner of the phone, in case of an emergency call where the caller could not talk.  There are 3 phases to this program, and each phase is controlled by each counties 911 emergency management.  The beginning phase, or phase 0, does not give anything more that the tower location that the cell phone user is making the phone call off of.  The next phase, or Phase 1, allows the 911 center to know which gerenal direction the cell phone user is from the tower, plus some specific info about the tower coverage and how far someone may be from the tower in the approximate number of miles.  The last phase, or Phase 3, allows the 911 operator to know within 3 meters where the phone is located at.  Then this info can be inputted into any mapping program or overlayed on a satellite photo.  

There are also mapping programs available that allow anyone to track the phone by the GPS chip by just typing in the cell phone number.  Many trucking companies use this to track their drivers and loads.  

So if your cellphone was built within the last 18 months or so, then Big Brother can find out where your phone is located at anytime they want to, as long as your phone is on.  

Not all phones us GPS, it is only mandated they have the ability to pinpoint when an emergency number is called..... some use other technologies.

The way this reads they can now see what tower one is using, not pinpoint the location, so this gets you within a few square miles. Of course, and external directional antenna would screw that system all up..........

Some of the programs in use can give you an exact location.  The days of just tower addresses coming up are quickly fading

Quoted: There are also mapping programs available that allow anyone to track the phone by the GPS chip by just typing in the cell phone number.  Many trucking companies use this to track their drivers and loads.   So if your cellphone was built within the last 18 months or so, then Big Brother can find out where your phone is located at anytime they want to, as long as your phone is on.

I would like to see some proof of this. All the literature I have seen and experts I have talked to tell me that the data is ONLY transmitted by the phone when an emergency number is dialed.

Show me one of those mappnig programs that lets you just put in a phone number.

Quoted: Some of the programs in use can give you an exact location.  The days of just tower addresses coming up are quickly fading

Yes, but this data is only available if an emergency number is dialed, otherwise all the cell company has is cell site data, and that is what this applies too.