The ubiquity of mobile phones has led to all manner of novel uses. The fact that each phone transmits data as to where it is enables others to use it to pinpoint their location at any time. This was one source of data that was used to identify a suspect in the notorious Gilgo murders, even though burner phones were used.
Investigators had gone backward through phone records collected from both midtown Manhattan and the Massapequa Park area – two areas where a “burner phone” used by the alleged killer were detected, according to court documents.
Authorities then narrowed records collected by cell towers to thousands, then down to hundreds, and finally down to a handful of people who could match a suspect.
From there, authorities worked to focus on people who lived in the area of the cell tower who also matched a physical description given by a witness who had seen the suspected killer.
In the narrowed pool, they searched for a connection to a green pickup a witness had seen the suspect driving, the sources said.
Investigators found Heuermann, who matched a witness’s physical description, lived close to the Long Island cell site and worked near the New York City cell sites where other calls were captured.
Kevin Drum describes another less dramatic use and links to a study that uses cell phone data to study weekly church attendance. It turns out that the number they find is far less that what surveys that ask people to self-report attendance get.
I guess that we should not be surprised that in a country where there is such a high level of public piety and where being religious is seen as being essential to being a moral person, people will fib about how faithfully they practice their faith.