locating cellphones

[Haru]

All in all, this stuff could work but wouldn't it be easier to try and get your contacts with the cops to make a call and run the phones gps, so you can locate where they are?

Yes, and Harry could have called someone to check Wikipedia in FM, but he summoned Chauncy instead. Wizards are weird like that. 

[Shecky]

Yup. That's the part I now agree with.

Now I'd just say no fashionable wizard would be caught dead tracking cell phones.

It. Is. Soooo Gauche! 

Luccio might. Just sayin'.

[Tedronai]

You do realise that this brings up a completely tangential issue: what if the tracking target is completely brainwashed to believe that hair or similar taken off their own body is not actually theirs?

Exactly the same thing that happens if the tracking target is, say, an infant, with no concept at all of 'that used to be part of me', or even 'that used to [anything]'.  It's not part of them now, so it's might as well never have been.  As far as the infant is concerned.  As far as the universe is concerned, and the spell specifically, that hair, having been removed relatively recently, has a strong connection to the infant.

[MorkaisChosen]

Yeah, I rather like the idea of Wild Hunt Magic and the Erlking's Huntsman- his equivalent of a Knight...

[riff.freelance]

My two bits:
It has more to do with the target in question and the phone than the actual numbers and tech. Expanded example: I am a tech geek, always on my CPU iPad or iPhone, if asked to characterize me one of these devices might be mentioned. A friend of mine plays with his damn android every instance he is able. I would allow either of us to be tracked, perhaps. My wife on the other hand, forgets her phone when she leaves the house, does not HAVE to have it in the same room as her, and can generally "survive" without it (if that could be called living). Her I would not allow to be tracked like that even if she had the phone on her, it's just not part of her Identity; her True Image.

I would absolutely allow it if someone were to use an aspect that might fit here. Like I have been trying to think of an aspect for a vanilla mortal that is "always online" via a smartphone etc. If the phone is "core" to the character then it's appropriate.

[Bruce Coulson]

Or, you could just use Contacts, find a hacker/cyber type, use the internal GPS of the phone and find people that way.

Not every problem is best solved by magic...

[Michael Sandy]

I would argue that the biggest problem with using a piece of technology as a link is that it breaks down real fast as magic is channeled through it.

But a telephone connection, or a security camera, a spoken or written spell would be echoed at the target location, at least until the phone or camera went splat.  And that brief surge of magic could be detected.  And if you had two or three wizards ready to get the exact direction you could triangulate.

But I can't see how you would channel enough energy to be detected WITHOUT frying the phone, and thereby alerting the owner of the magical *ping* that went off.

Hmmm.  Maybe if the *ping* is thaumaturgical, it wouldn't fry the phone.  So you would need a spoken spell, echoed at the far end, that wouldn't be heard by whoever picked up the phone.  Maybe if you had loud music with a heavy beat so that while the phone picks up the spell, it wouldn't be obvious to the listener.

But the spell would have to go off at both ends of the connection.  And require very little power.   A "notice me" spell would need some clause that prevents those who were present when the spell went off from detecting it, or maybe the "notice me" spell would create a NeverNever beacon, and just wouldn't be visible from the mundane side at all.

[Team8Mum]

Or, you could just use Contacts, find a hacker/cyber type, use the internal GPS of the phone and find people that way.

Because they have a hammer and every problem looks like a nail?

This thread does confuse me. Given wizards general issues with technology, why would they consider using a phone in the first place?
If they know enough about those strange items you people call  'mobile phones' to consider using one to locate people, surely they would also know enough to be aware of the fact that they are tracked using technology (E.g. News storie where missing persons are traced by a phone signal - or on a related note via credit/ bank card use) and so would use other people they know who are familiar with 'that field' to get the information for them.

If you Had decided to go after it then you would probably have more success aiming at the case the phone is kept in and thus 'avoid' the technology. Or why not just aim at the targets car/ house keys.
Or his Bank/credit card, which is just a bit of plastic and even more likely not to be left at home
.

[Becq]

Just for the sake of argument, let's say that to at least a dedicated technophile, things like cell numbers and email addresses could become enough a part of their personal identity that they could constitute a True Name.

OK.  Even so, just knowing that number or address wouldn't be enough, in the same way that grabbing the name "Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden" from a phone book would be enough.  Lots of people know Harry's name.  But in the novels, it requires Harry to deliberately speak his name (or part of it) for someone to gain access to his True Name (or part of it).  It's not the words themselves that constitute the Ture Name, it's that expression of the person's self wrapped up in his revelation of his identity that matters.

So I could easily see some people as tying themselves so strongly to an email name, forum handle, etc that it could become their True Name.  But even so, a wizard would have to hear them deliberately speak that name in person for it to be used in magic.  A recording, email list, business card, etc wouldn't cut it.