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MEX-032 Mobile Extractions

What can location records show?

title: What can location records show? subtitle: They may show a coordinate, place or area associated with a device, account, application or event—not automatically the exact position of a person. slug: what-can-location-records-show series: mobile-extraction-and-reader-reports section: interpreting-common-artefacts card_type: question_card content_type: core-operational risk_level: high-risk pathway_order: 34 section_order: 9 status: draft owner: IF Digital last_updated: '2026-07-25' version: '0.1' review_gate: pending review_mode: ai-assisted review_timebox_mins: 60 qa_gate: pending qa_count: 0 pipeline_ref: PIPELINE_PRG_001 pipeline_version: '1.1' public_safe: true video_ready: true word_count: 496 estimated_read_time_seconds: 205 audiences: - investigator - supervisor - fraud and compliance practitioner tags: - mobile evidence - location - GPS - Wi-Fi - attribution sources: - title: SWGDE Best Practices for Mobile Device Forensic Analysis url: https://www.swgde.org/documents/published-complete-listing/20-f-005-swgde-best-practices-for-mobile-device-forensic-analysis/ - title: 'NIST SP 800-101 Rev. 1: Guidelines on Mobile Device Forensics' url: https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/101/r1/final - title: 'Apple Support: Control the location information you share on iPhone' url: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3dd5f9be/ios - title: 'Apple Support: About privacy and Location Services' url: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102515 - title: 'Google Android Help: Manage your Android device’s location settings' url: https://support.google.com/android/answer/3467281?hl=en-GB

What can location records show?

They may show a coordinate, place or area associated with a device, account, application or event—not automatically the exact position of a person.

Script

A mobile report may contain coordinates, addresses, map points, routes or places.

Those records can be very useful.

They don't automatically prove that the device, and certainly not a particular person, was at the exact displayed point.

Start with the source of the location.

Was it created by GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the mobile network, a mapping application, a photograph, a weather app, a delivery address, a search result or a cloud account?

Modern phones can combine GPS, nearby Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular information to estimate location.

Apple and Google both explain that device location may be approximate or precise depending on settings, permissions, available signals and the application.

The source determines the meaning.

A GPS coordinate associated with a photograph may represent the camera location recorded at capture.

A navigation destination may represent where the user wanted to go.

A weather location may be a manually selected city.

A delivery address may belong to the customer account.

A map search may show interest in a place without showing travel.

A Significant Locations or Timeline record may be inferred or learned from device and account activity.

Now examine precision and accuracy.

Does the artefact include an accuracy radius, confidence, source type or precision flag?

A coordinate displayed to many decimal places is not automatically accurate to centimetres.

The underlying estimate may cover a broad area.

Approximate-location permissions can deliberately reduce precision.

Indoor, urban or weak-signal environments can affect results.

Then examine time.

Is the timestamp the moment the location was measured, requested, stored, synchronised or later displayed?

Was the record generated in the background?

Did the application retain an old location and reuse it?

Does the report convert the time into a display timezone?

Also consider synchronisation and account sharing.

Cloud location history may include activity from several devices linked to one account.

A handset may download locations created elsewhere.

A shared device or account may complicate human attribution.

Device location is not the same as person location.

Look for corroboration.

Do photographs, Wi-Fi associations, calls, messages, transport records, payment activity or CCTV fit the location and time?

Does the device contain a coherent sequence rather than one isolated point?

Is the source independent, or are several displayed artefacts derived from the same underlying record?

The common mistake is:

“The report plots the phone at this address, so the suspect was inside the building.”

The record may locate a device or account within an area and may have a known uncertainty.

The person, floor, room and activity require more evidence.

Another mistake is to dismiss all mobile location as too inaccurate.

A sequence of well-sourced points, supported by Wi-Fi, photographs and other records, can be highly probative.

A careful conclusion might say:

“The mapping application database records a GPS-derived location with a reported accuracy of 20 metres at this time.”

Then explain which evidence links the device to the person.

Location evidence is strongest when the source, precision, time and human attribution are all stated separately.

Key takeaway

Identify the location source, precision, timestamp and application purpose before placing the handset or person at a location.

Source notes

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Where this question leads

These links explain why the next page may matter, rather than presenting an undifferentiated list.