This is how the Saudi government can use a cellphone serial number to track down women
- INSIDER reported on Wednesday that Saudi authorities were using cellphone IMEIs to track down women who flee its repressive society.
- The technique — usually reserved for issues of war and national security — can be replicated on more or less any mobile device, using the 15-digit number.
- When you make a call, use 4G data, or send a text, your IMEI is broadcast through nearby cell towers and used by your network provider.
- Here's how a government or a person, benign or malicious, could get your IMEI to track you down.
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An INSIDER investigation revealed that Saudi Arabia is tracking down women who run away, often fleeing abuse, by using their cellphone IMEI.
Though rarely used outside the realms of crime, national security, and armed conflict, the technique could be used to find almost any mobile device.
Every cellphone has an International Mobile Equipment Identity, or IMEI. It's 15 digits, and no two are the same. Contained in the numbers are details of the make and model of the device. It's a bit like a serial number.
An IMEI is commonly written on the SIM tray or behind the battery pack of a cellphone. On the iPhone 6S and earlier models, it's on the bottom end on the back.
When you make a phone call, use data, or send a text, your IMEI is included in the information transmitted to cell towers and is available to your network operator, a company like Vodafone or AT&T.
Most of the time, the number is not used for anything beyond providing the signals your phone needs to work.
However, police, intelligence agencies, and the military can use the number to track a phone to a location.
This can happen when a phone has been stolen and the police are trying to locate it. It can also be used by security agencies to track and hunt terrorists.
One woman fleeing Saudi Arabia who spoke to INSIDER said that Saudi intelligence worked with the police in the country of Georgia to get hold of her IMEI.
Another Saudi woman described how Saudi agents came to her family's home and demanded the box her phone was sold in, which has the IMEI written on it.
Some phones have an IMEI that can be reprogrammed, though it's a crime to do that in countries like the US or India.
A phone's IMEI remains the same even if the SIM card is changed.
The processes and software with which an IMEI is used to produce a location are not clear.
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