East central Iowa | http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/06/07/verizon_nsa_scandal_can_disposable_burner_cell_phones_protect_you_from_government.html
"it’s not difficult for the government to determine your location based on your burner’s communication with cell towers. In 2006 the DEA arrested a man named Melvin Skinner, who was caught transporting 1,100 pounds of marijuana across the Southwest. The government was able to catch up with Skinner by tracking the signals being emitted by his two prepaid cellphones and subsequently triangulating his location. (They had previously traced the burners back to Skinner. He probably didn’t use a French accent at the convenience store where he bought them.) Skinner appealed his conviction on the grounds that the tracking of his cellphone signal constituted a breach of privacy. In 2012, however, a federal appeals court ruled that people using prepaid cellphones had no “reasonable expectation” of privacy, and that the government was free to track away. So if you’re going to use a burner and don’t want it to get connected back to you, you probably shouldn’t use it at your house, or your place of business, or any other location with which you have an identifiable connection." |