Is it illegal to ping a cellphone? Keep in mind that it is illegal to ping somebody's personal cellphone without first gaining physical access to their phone. That gets into legal issues of privacy and security. Both methods outlined in this article are introduced and explained, given that you're trying to ping a phone whose owner is aware of it.What does it mean to ping a cell phone? Pinging a cell phone traditionally means locating the phone by identifying the cell tower of the last signal the phone received. These days that's not the only way to ping a lost phone.Is a cell phone ping admissible in court? Phillips acknowledged that cell phone tower "ping" evidence is admissible, but drew a distinction between the method used to create the RF signal propagation map and the collection of historical cell phone "ping" evidence. This is an interesting form of evidence -- something that amounts to cell tower hearsay.Can law enforcement track cell phones? Popular with police. All it takes is for the phone to be turned on to work, and it allows police to track the cell phone without getting a warrant from a service or provider. In most cases, law-enforcement agencies need a simple court order to use cell-phone tracking.
The Cell Phone “Ping” Tracking Was A Warrantless Search. The WA Supreme Court held that the “ping” tracking of Muhammad’s cell phone was indeed a search. “When law enforcement loses sight of a suspected individual, officers need merely ask a cellular service carrier to ping that individual’s phone and almost instantaneously police
Appellant Christian Sims was charged with murder. He filed a pretrial motion to suppress evidence of real-time location information used to track his cell phone by “pinging” it without a warrant. Using that information, police found and arrested him.