Would the feds be able to track cellphone GPS pings that were occurring inside the capitol?

[Quixote1818]

Also outside days or months later? Could cell phone services allow them to see such data if it's even possible? I know police have tracked people in real time by their cell phones but what about past data? Seems like that data would be someplace.

[regnaD kciN]

1. I'm sure they've already demanded the cell-tower logs...

...for the time period in question.

And, even if they couldn’t track inside the Capitol itself (and I’m pretty sure they can), it doesn’t matter. Just being inside the outer perimeter of the Capitol grounds would be a crime.

[Phoenix61]

2. There was a post that said there are numerous

cell phone boosters(?) throughout the Capital building to ensure good cell phone coverage and WiFi. That should make it very easy to determine if someone was inside or not.

[RockRaven]

3. If their phones had WiFi or Bluetooth enabled, even if they didn't TRY to connect, there would

or at least could be digital footprints left behind that are even more location specific than phone networks. It it technologically possible. So if that is not the case the flaws in Capitol/national security are even worse than what we already saw on video that day......

[turtleblossom]

4. And facial recognition equipment

[marylandblue]

5. Of course they can. A hacker tracked just Parler users inside the Capitol

FBI can do the same for every cellphone in the building.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/gizmodo.com/parler-users-breached-deep-inside-u-s-capitol-building-1846042905/amp

[Quixote1818]

6. Fascinating article. Thanks nt

[Quixote1818]

7. I would assume they need more than just cellphone data though. They could say their cellphone was

stolen. So that is where the facial recognition software and social media presence etc. come in.

[Nevilledog]

8. Found this last night

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[LeftInTX]

10. Cool!!!!

This map is so freak'n awesome!

[LeftInTX]

9. Yes

My phone knows where I am even when it is in airplane mode...(No connection)
I do canvassing and I always put my phone in airplane mode, the map works fine.

As long as the phone is on, it can tell

[roamer65]

11. Yes.

[LeftInTX]

12. Map of where every Parler video was shot on 1/6

Link to tweet

[Kaleva]

13. the rioters with average and above intelligence would have used burner phones.

[LeftInTX]

14. Yes, but these people are not very bright

https://airtable.com/shruhNrLika1CtFno/tbl1HUS10AwlqY9NV

[MR. ELECTABLE]

15. Not GPS specifically

GPS is a one way technology, per se, in that devices receive the GPS signals but do not transmit a signal to the GPS satellites. That would make it impractical for handheld devices to use GPS since the amount of amplification needed would drain battery power.

As others have mentioned, it may be possible to triangulate position based on WiFi and Bluetooth beacons, or through signal quality indicators used by microcells within the capital for closed loop power control. Devices closer to the microcells will report a higher signal quality at lower power levels since attenuation (path loss) will be reduced. Communications systems use these values to minimize power usage and improve battery performance.