[pcmaffey]

> IMSI-Catchers also allow adversaries to intercept your conversations, text messages, and data. Police can use them to determine your location or to find out who is in a given geographic area at what time. [1]

Does turning one's phone off not disable pinging cell towers?

[1] https://cellularprivacy.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detec...

[bitexploder]

Wrong. This is an exaggeration at best and just plain wrong for most US LTE users. LTE is very hard to fully MiTM. You can still catch / observe through IMSI, but the phone won't deal with your rogue tower. If you can downgrade someone to 3G you can more easily observe voice and or texts. Data is actually harder to MiTM, even on 3G. That said, it is not feasible to down grade any modern US LTE devices as far as I know.

Turning your phone off usually does prevent tower pings, but some phones have been known to be sneaky.

[shakna]

Many modern phones don't turn off all the way, and continue to ping towers.

I can't find any official documentation, but several Android phones I've owned over the years have powered themselves on when switched off and receiving a phone call.