Arizona Fatality

I thought this was worthy of mention: "Searchers find missing Arizona hiker dead, his dog alive with him."

This an AP story, posted here and likely on a zillion US sites.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/searchers-f...h-him-1.5911972

This gentleman made contact via cell phone, was advised that rescue was coming, was advised to stay put, and still wandered out into difficult terrain. And perished.

It's hard to see how a person could make these decisions in their right mind. But a couple of times I have needed to fast extremely for medical tests. I found my ability to problem solve or make good decisions to deviate from a plan went downhill very quickly.

So at least I am aware of it, and that is a tool in my toolbox. I can only imagine that dehydration would hit much harder and faster. What sort of self-awareness would you cultivate to know when your cognitive abilities were impaired?

Good share and thoughtful comments. Not having been in the military or any similar profession, I can only imagine that training and practice while fatigued, hungry, thirsty, cold, hot and so on is the only thing that works reliably to help people to know what the right thing to do is under stress in those circumstances.

Very sad story but I'm glad they were able to bring him home, and of course to save the dog.

Seems he walked out of cell phone coverage? Or his phone battery went flat I guess.

Under stress, one's ability to reason degrades significantly (personal experience speaking0. This is just one more example, with a tragic ending.
Most often, you best get is to stop, make yourself conspicuous (bright clothing, signal mirror, etc) and save your energy.

he very likely was thirsty and may have been seeking water - a definite exception to the above guideline. Always carry a bit more than you think you will need.
Why didn't he just dial 911 direct and seek assistance? His phone could have been tracked, simplifying the rescue enormously.

On 05/15,
"YCSO continues to search for a missing 74-year-old Prescott Valley hiker last seen in Wood Chute trailhead on Mingus Mountain near FS 102 Friday morning. Donald Hayes called his wife that afternoon to say he and his dog Ranger were lost but he wasn't sure where. YCSO Forest Patrol was able to contact Mr. Hayes Friday around 2 p.m. on his cell phone but he stated that he did not want to wait for a rescue and that he was “continuing down a ravine”. He stated he was unsure of what ravine, but told Forest Patrol he thought he was moving northwest and saw Williamson Valley. He also said he still had food and water and was turning his phone off to save the battery. There has been no further communication with him, and efforts to use GPS through his cell phone have been unsuccessful."

A power bank, even a small one, is a nice accessory to a ell phone...

It's a shame the guy died, but I'm wondering what the above statement means. Retrieval of a GPS location from someones phone - assuming they were attempting to do this without the phone owners participation/permission? If this is indeed what the statement means, while I can understand why rescuers would love to gain access to this type of information, I am dead set against them being able to. Or anybody being able to do it, for that matter.

There are two usually-used technical means to find a cellphone’s location along with two that are unusual. There are several legal means to obtain the information.

Addressing the technical side, the vast majority of phones made today have a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, including the US GPS system, Europe’s Galileo, Russia’s GLONASS, China’s BeiDou, India’s IRNSS and Japan’s QZSS.

Any cellphone that is connected to a cellular service provider can be located to the cell tower it’s connected to. If multiple cell towers are within range, the cellular service provider can narrow this area down dramatically and provide a reasonably precise location without any GNSS signal — this is an inherent capability of cellular telephony systems.

At least a few US law enforcement agencies have fake cell tower devices commonly called “Stiingray” that can be used to intercept phone calls and locate devices precisely. Let’s not discuss the legalities of their use here, as that definitely would get into politics quickly.

Finally, I understand that in at least a few cases US military aircraft have used their electronic warfare capabilities to find a missing person’s cellphone by its radio emissions to assist SAR assets.

On the legal side, I have “Find My” turned on for my iPhone and iPad, so anyone with my AppleID credentials and the authorized members of my immediate family can find my iPhone and my iPad — non-Apple devices have similar capabilities. Hopefully nobody has my AppleID credentials but me. I understand that other platforms work very similarly.

If the police demand it, Apple and/or my cellular carrier will give the location data they have for my devices. For a criminal investigation this requires a warrant. I understand that in an emergency (such as someone missing in the wilderness or being kidnapped) there’s a way for law enforcement agencies to skip the warrant requirement.

While one can turn the GNSS components off on smartphones, connecting to a cell tower will always give your carrier some degree of location information for your device. There’s no way around it without Airplane Mode, turning the device off, or not carrying one at all.

Also, if you dial 911 and your phone has a GNSS receiver, it will attempt to provide your GNSS location to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP, aka 911 call center). So dialing 911 might be better than calling the police, SAR or others directly, if you want to be found.

Pretty trivial to send message with a unique link, asking the recipient to open it. Once opened in a modern browser on a phone/device (if it has GPS) it'll report back the coords. SARLOC is one that is operated here in the UK.
But would require phone owners' interaction & participation, otherwise is a major security hole.

I understand radio direction finding to locate a transmitter (I'm a ham). And triangulation via cell towers. And I've heard of Stingray, although I know nothing about it other than it's a way for police to lie to your cellphone to get it to connect to their device to get you (either location of maybe even intercepting voice transmissions).

But the mention of "accessing GPS" was new to me. At least without requiring user cooperation/permission. GPS coordinates are going to walk you right up to a person, much higher resolution than any of the above methods. That is a big privacy concern if you ask me, and has no reason to be implemented IMHO.

I wasn't aware of your location being automatically passed if you dial 911. But in that case, I'm in agreement with it happening. That would be a good thing. As long as it's strictly controlled to ONLY do this for legitimate 911 contacts. Along with adequate notification to users, so they could turn that behavior off it desired (that might be stupid in many cases, but you still have to allow it).

I use an app on my Android phone named "Glympse" that allows others to track my location. I turn that on if I go off on a walk by myself, and it sends a link to my wife so she can see where I am. But I don't leave that app sending out my location routinely. Only when I'm off alone with a chance that I might keel over and not be found quickly. Hiking, when within cell service range, is a great time to have that app active. Probably turn it on even if you don't expect to be in cell phone range - you never know when you might get a fleeting connection and word of your location could sneak out.

I'm curious: does "what3words" meet a reasonable standard for personal privacy? As I understand it, it's the user who chooses to make contact with authorities and provide this information. Assuming the user is in a condition to make the call in the first place ...

What3Words is not a tracking application. It's more akin to your latitude and longitude, except the location is expressed using words as the coordinates rather than numbers. So if I want to tell you that I am at ///hitch.member.embodied (I'm not, but I wish I were!) I can tell you that.

If you are thinking of "Glympse" rather than "What3Words", then Glympse is indeed a tracking application. Your location is communicated to their servers, and from there, others can access it via a unique link. How well that link is protected and kept private, I don't know. I would say generically, if your concerned about privacy to that degree, you wouldn't be a candidate to use a tracking app, any tracking app, in the first place.