Can someone please clarify for me, because I'm not very iphone savvy. When you refer to a "ping"does this mean a recognition of a particular phone being in a particular area and at a particular time. I know my phone (HTC) on it's "home page" changes the name of the suburb I'm in as I move around. If that data is able to be collected, I would imagine it would be enormous material for prosecution.
Hi CouchCop
Two different things happening there. Your phone is simply putting up the name of the cell to which it is connected. On many phones, that is an option. Many of the older non-smart phones used to have it - it is quite handy especially when away from home turf.
What is meant by a 'ping' is when two computers (or a phone and a cell tower) are communicating. One sends a "ping" signal to the other, which then responds with a 'pong'. You can do it on your computer too. You can 'ping' a domain (eg google.com) and check the round trip time for your ping to be answered.
The phones will ping the cell towers at regular intervals, and/or the towers will ping the phones too. It's called a handshaking protocol, and is the means by which the cellular network knows where you are so when somebody calls you, for example, the network knows where to send the ring signal. I guess you'd call that the "ring ping"...
So, the pings are used to track the phones as they switch from cell to cell (tower to tower). In addition to that, the newer generation smartphones - like the iPhone - also use "location services" based in the phone itself. It will triangulate its own position from cell towers if more than one is "visible" to the phone (that's how it can tell your location so accurately even indoors), plus if you're outdoors, iPhones (and others) also have GPS receivers. These will increase the accuracy of the location finding.
I should point out that GPS receivers are just that - receivers. They receive the very tiny signals from the satellites, but they don't need to transmit anything. They get their positioning information by measuring the time delay from when the signal is sent (it's encoded in the signal) and when it is received. With that happening from multiple satellites (up to 12 at a time), accuracy can be to within a couple of metres.
Hope all that gobbledygook makes sense... :rocker:
EDIT: Marlywings beat me to it, in a much more concise explanation!