Yea, I didn't believe it at first myself. But someone on the inside sent me some screen shots of it in action. This was probably developed mostly by HSARPA (Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency).

I wasn't able to get that much detailed information but they are using the GPS capability in most cell phones to keep track of "people of interest". Apparently they can do this without breaking any laws.. and can claim no invasion of privacy as well.

In this shot you can see World Wind running with the Plug-In installed. Note the Homeland Security option.

That opens up a new window where they can input the users cell phone number. Looks like they can only track three phone numbers at once.. but if you have multiple computers with World Wind AND this plug-in.. well..

There already are options with some cell carries where you can see the location of a phone when it is on.. I can only guess at this point the plug-in is contacting these services and requesting the information.

As you can see, here are the search results. From the looks of things it has the person's current position and where they have been over the last few hours or days.

Now we have a close up view of the current position. Notice that when you highlight the icon, you get a lot of interesting and scary information shown (Makes me glad I don't have a GPS enabled phone).

But how is this done you ask? I did a google search and came up with this graph that shows how the data is collected, stored and sent.

Fairly basic in how it works.. I suggest if you have a GPS enabled phone.. you turn OFF the GPS. That way you can only be tracked when you USE you phone (insead of when it is just on).