Technology question. If an active cell phone were to be dropped in a body of water

[raccoon]

Or was run over by a tank or 18 wheeler, in other words destroyed, would someone be able to determine where the phone last was when it was working?

[HipChick]

1. Yes...the last ping off the nearest cell tower can be determined...

Unless you used a burner phone..according to IDTV might be harder

[Dem_4_Life]

4. According to IDTV LOL

I had the same thought.

[HipChick]

5. I swear everything I've learnt..

I've learnt from IDTV....

[Dem_4_Life]

10. I'm right there with you

Plus we always joke after Kenda that Colorado Springs must be the most dangerous city.

My TV is always set on either ID or MSNBC

[HipChick]

11. Lmao...mine too...ID or MSNBC...

lord help if anyone in my family passes NOT from natural causes...

[Renew Deal]

2. Maybe not from the phone, but probably from cell phone tower logs

Or other wireless logs. The serial number is probably on the phone (and in the phone) so law enforcement can probably get details from the manufacturer.

[Blue_true]

7. Every phone has an address, even burners.

Except with burners, you can avoid attaching your name to the phone. Which is ok if your intent is to do something where you don't want to get caught.

[crazycatlady]

8. yeah like phonebanking for a Democratic candidate

I've bought dozens of burner phones. When Best Buy was running a sale on them and I bought 10, the guy looked at me like I was some drug kingpin.

[RockRaven]

3. I believe it would be possible to determine which microwave radio (cell tower) it was last

communicating with. That would give you a general area. If you want a very specific location, such as determined by GPS, it would probably depend on whether the phone was tracking its own GPS location and putting that data back into the cloud either in real time or had done so recently (would depend on what apps were active and what their settings were).

But I'm not in any way an expert on these technologies.

[Blue_true]

6. Yes. If you have your locator on, it's position gets logged.

Your phone has an address, the address gets recorded and that data is most likely stored in several places.

If you don't want that, turn off the location feature and make sure that if you use the phone for directions, you again turn off the location feature (it has to turn on for maps to work).

[USALiberal]

9. I sent a link to this post to the FBI. nt