... Has a simple on / off switch on the Settings icon page under Location Services that disconnects the GPS function.

I would assume that there is a way to turn tracking on and off, but that begs the question to whoever is tracking you:  "Why did you turn it off?"  Same with leaving the phone behind at your home or office while you were out.  I suppose anyone could come up with an excuse now and then, but how many times can one get get away with that?

Technology has given hobbyists a lot of advantages over the last ten years with the internet and cell phones, etc.  Now with this tracking ability, it is going to give the married hobbyist a run for his money to find ways to keep a suspicious spouse at bay.

is to turn the unit off completly. During the time that it is off it cannot be tracked with the electronics that are built in.

This is a general but accurate statement. Different carriers have different setups. The capability is built into every smartphone and most web capable phone. iPhone excluded, each carrier determines how their company will track, and how the records are save. Verizon is the most comprehensive, and the most cooperative with le.

Patriot Act eleiminates the need for Court Orders or cause to abtain records from carriers.

For the time being, you can get certain brands of disposable, no contract phones, and register them anonymously. Surely those will go away, just like anonymous Visa cards.

But basically the answer is: If your phone is turned on you cannot stop *its* locatioin from being tracked, and from that information be available to le - spouses and private eyes are a different matter.

why not leave it at home. and turned ON?

Electronics now have the ability to be recovered if lost or stolen by virtue of the tracking mechanism which you have the choice to enable when setting up the item.  I would assume that your locations can be logged and tracked:  both past locations as well as current, real time.  I would not be surprised if one could even search, say by locations that the electronic was in a solitary location for time periods, like 1 hour or more.

Obviously this is bad news for hobby-guys who have sophisticated spouses or PI seeking evidence.

Me, being a fairly unsophisticated electronics guy, needs help from you guys who understand it better.
Can one disconnect the tracking mechanism for periods of time?
Advice?

Thanks

No special features to turn off.  No connection to you personally, if you do it right.  Much better to keep the two parts of your life separate.

i have a hobby phone...but i always keep my other phone with me.
question still applies.

but then you'll have difficulty finding local restarurants and gas stations etc. lol

Phone can still track you from cellular towers and wifi connections:

Turn off "Use Wireless Networks"
Turn off "Use GPS satellites"

Also, on your home screen, long press an empty space and click on 'widgets'.

Put the "power settings" widget on your homescreen so that you have direct access to all Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, sync, brightness settings at your fingertips.  iPhone doesn't have this ability, afaik.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fosSGStYRGw

Make sure you have a pattern lock or password lock set up for your phone so that no one can use it without your passcode.

These were easily google-able, btw... :P

this before to at least check the settings.

When I bought my phone, the setting for finding a lost or stolen phone was already enabled, you have to go in manually to disable it... have you checked w/your cell phone carrier, maybe yours was the same way?

Not all new phones track with the power on and no call being placed either.

If you don't want you position tracked you have to turn the phone off to be sure.

If you are going to turn it off and leave it off you might as well leave it on at home.

If you are familiar with the physics of electromagnetic waves or happen to be a secret agent you probably already know how to get around the problem cell phones transmitting or receiving radio signals.  As a member of one of the communities mentioned above (no not secret agent) I will let my brothers and sisters in on a little secret. You never know what transmission capabilities are built into the phone until its to late. It is better to be safe than sorry. The only way to get around transmitting or receiving any radio transmissions is to place the phone in a small Farady cage.  This way, no, I repeat, no radio transmissions can get in or out.  You can purchase small units on line that shield your phone or other electronic devices.  I happen to wear a Farady cage around my penis ever since the aliens abducted me and implanted a device into my corpus cavernosa.  There is no way in hell that I am going to let those little, wide-eyed, slimely little green mother fuckers get ahold of me again. Believe me, you don't want to know where they put their probes!  

As everyone here knows or should know by now, purchase a track phone with cash so that it is not traceable to you.  Use this phone when hobbying.  If, and I repeat, if you take your other phone with you, you run the risk of being traceable.  In order to avoid this, either leave your phone at home or shield the phone as mentioned above.  Oh yeah, I always "sweep" my car for hidden transmitting devices before going on a hobby adventure. But that's another story!

Cell phones work the same way n-star and lojack work in your car they track it to the closest cell towers that pick up the signal. The gps chip finds your location within feet of where you are.

Move to Wyoming. No cell service means nooooo problems. Shit no providers either fuck that shit.

I have to check on that nikkey thank you !