Silent SMS: The Hidden Ping That Tracks Your Phone's Location Explained
StewartalsopIII · x · 2026-09-26
A widely shared explainer covers "Silent SMS," a surveillance technique long used by law enforcement: carriers send an invisible, silent message that the phone quietly answers, forcing it to talk to the nearest cell tower and confirming real-time location and activity. There's no way to block it. The author uses this to argue that anyone expecting privacy—including for ChatGPT or Claude chats—should abandon that illusion, at least until some distant future.
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