Can my location be tracked using my cell phone?

Increasingly, the answer is yes. In the past, your general location could be verified by looking at your cell phone records to determine which tower was used to connect your call. Now, your location can often be tracked and pinpointed in real time if your cell phone is turned on.

Most current-model cell phones now include Global Positioning System (GPS) chips, which can determine your coordinates by connecting to satellites. It is likely that the trend of including location-tracking components will continue as cell phone manufacturers comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Enhanced 911 (E911) rule.

The FCC's E911 initiative requires cell phone carriers to be able to track and pinpoint their customers' location within 100 meters, so emergency responders can reach them in a crisis. However, phones with GPS chips can actually find you within a few feet.

Ninety-five percent of cell phones must be E911 compliant by the end of 2005. Although several phone carriers have asked for extensions for this cell phone locating service, in the near future nearly all cell phones will have location-tracking features. Although the impetus behind location-based cell phone tracking was public safety, many companies are exploring commercial opportunities as well.

Several companies now offer non-emergency tracking for a monthly fee (about $15-25). Just like tracking a private car or a fleet of business vehicles , a company track their employee cell phones . You can even track your own cell phone.
One of the newest commercial forms of non-emergency cell phone tracking is aimed at parents. In the next year, several companies are expected to pitch monitoring services to parents.

These services would allow parents to monitor their child's location by tracking their cell phone. A parent would be able to turn on their computer and locate their child -- and even watch as the child travels from place to place.

In addition to tracking the location of the cell phones, these monitoring services could send text messages to children who travel too far from parent-approved locations. Text messages may also be used to alert parents if a stranger or hacker attempts to use the service to locate their child.

Groups of friends are also expected to be able to sign-up for location-based tracking services in the future.

Companies, seeking to capitalize on popular computer social networks, such as Friendster and MySpace, would allow friends to track the location of each other. The service would likely work similarly to the social networks on the internet, where one friend would send a message to another asking them to authorize the GPS location tracking.

Once the pair of friends were linked, each person could send restaurant and movie reviews or even weather reports depending on the location of their friend. There is already a service named “mologogo” lets gps social networking.
Tracking by GPS can be limited in two ways. Its use can be limited when the cell phone user is indoors. In addition, many GPS-equipped phones have two settings: 911-only or location-on.

You should examine your phone and select the appropriate setting for your personal needs. You may have a GPS cell phone and may not know it. Most new smart phones have GPS feature on them . So make sure you read all the GPS info of your cell phone from the manual.

The privacy policies of commercial cell phone location-tracking companies usually restrict their services to either the actual owner of the cell phone, the parent of the cell phone user or employer-owned phones. Please be aware that if you are using a phone or vehicle provided by your employer, under the current law your employer can use cell phone GPS tracking to monitor you during work hours.