[HN Gopher] You Can Drive but Not Hide: Detection of Hidden Cell...
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You Can Drive but Not Hide: Detection of Hidden Cellular GPS
Vehicle Trackers
Author : gnabgib
Score : 61 points
Date : 2025-06-10 19:10 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.researchgate.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.researchgate.net)
| goda90 wrote:
| Better hope your stalker isn't friends with a law enforcement
| officer either: https://deflock.me/
| ge96 wrote:
| that's not related to flock safety (company) is it?
| sodality2 wrote:
| Yep. Their brand of ALPR cameras have spread like a plague
| very quickly all over the US
| ge96 wrote:
| Interesting I had actually considered getting a job there
| at one point ha... it's like Anduril you know, seems like a
| cool company but the purpose... Also doubt I'm qualified
| but yeah.
| ty6853 wrote:
| I noticed that in Abrego Garcia's recent indictment they
| were able to figure out he was in 2022 based on ALPR pulls
| that showed he was actually putzing around Texas. My
| understanding was most ALPRs were being stored for no more
| than 30 days but apparently that isn't the case, since it
| appears they did not start to build the trafficking case
| until this year.
| defsectec wrote:
| The map of ALPR nodes show that some are installed by "Flock
| Safety" when you click on a single one and view the details.
|
| So I would assume those two things are directly connected.
|
| Just speculation though. Don't have time to verify currently.
| Daviey wrote:
| Interesting research, but the paper does not address the
| contribution to the arms race of good vs bad. The criminals will
| likely use this technique to find legitimate car trackers before
| stealing the vehicle.
| ge96 wrote:
| If you're lucky your car gets destroyed in a street takeover
| then insurance gives you a new car (points to head)
|
| edit: on a more serious note, I figure I won't own a nice car
| till I move somewhere nicer
| keyringlight wrote:
| At least for motorbikes, the tactic is to abandon a stolen
| vehicle for a while after the theft to see if anyone comes for
| it, then take it to home base. I'd guess it all comes down to
| how professional an operation you're dealing with, last week a
| haul was recovered due to a tracker:
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1denv9eg6wo
| weinzierl wrote:
| These efforts are commendable, but by and large I think our
| location data is just a commodity by now and it is best not to
| assume you can reliably hide your location permanently and
| reliably without spending a lot of effort.
|
| Not that I'd find that idea pleasant, I just think the ship has
| sailed.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| This isn't a generic data privacy counter-measure or concern.
| This is specifically targeted against stalking, which is pretty
| much one of only a few cases where this kind of thing would be
| used against you. Specifically the case where the perpetrator
| will place a device in or on the victim's car.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Sure, but the stalking issue is a subset of the generic data
| privacy issue or do you believe you can hide from a stalker
| if everyone else under the sun knows you location. It might
| be too difficult to use location data brokers for stalking
| but the whole economy around them makes the app ecosystem
| weak against location privacy and makes it easy to use a
| manipulated app for stalking. No special devices needed and
| certainly no cellular devices needed.
|
| https://xkcd.com/538/
| fsflover wrote:
| This looks like security (or privacy) nihilism:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27897975
| weinzierl wrote:
| The security nihilism is thinking you'd need special hardware
| to stalk someone, when a malicious on the victims phone does
| the job.
| salawat wrote:
| That ship is more than capable of being put back in a bottle
| with enough political will. We just need to come together
| enough to get the message heard.
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(page generated 2025-06-10 23:00 UTC)