If for any reason you would like to know more about, how can you be traced from a phone call this information will be helpful. There are various ways we can prevent someone tracing our number when we make a call in the UK, one option is to hide our number when calling from our smartphone settings, the other option is to place 141 in front of the number we would like to call anonymously.
In general, private numbers, restricted calls and blocked numbers can all be traced if they contain enough data, the numbers that cannot be traced are unknown numbers or international out of area numbers with unavailable data to trace the calls. This is a bit technical how a successful trace can be run but whatever the reason to hide the number we can only suggest most calls from hidden numbers are traceable by authorities in the UK if the need arises.
There is a concept named cell phone tower triangulation, this method allows to locate where the signal of the phone caller is picked up from, the name is tower triangulation since the antenna on these stations are in the shape of a triangle, more the towers present in an area there is more specific location information, authorities use these power triangulation stations to search for dangerous activities and missing person searches where there is serious suspicion occurring for the lost person or a planned attack on public. The tower makes a calculation of how far the phone signal is and provides information regarding the geographical location of the signal.
Of course, these towers are not usable by public and government authorities may only raise a request where necessary. If the caller is using a VoIP phone that is different to trace as calls are taking place on the internet. The main information that can be tracked about the internet calls is IP addresses, the IP address of the originating call can be traced to the location of the caller. This means that ID information of the caller can also be exposed. Many people using WhatsApp on their smartphones to make calls would recall that the IP address or the ID of the caller is available to obtain but the content of messages and voice calls are not traceable due to the end-to-end encryption on the application.
However as like the tower triangulation method this sort of tracing also requires law enforcement. Some users think using Virtual private Networks (VPNs) will protect them from being traced but it can only create a reason to assume that it may protect your privacy up to a certain level since it hides your IP address. Remember the server that you send the traffic to records all the traffic coming to it hence it can never be completely untraceable.
In the US there are codes that allows you to check if some has tapped your phone to listen to your conversations or check your messages, it is always advisable to use antivirus on smartphone devices as they acted in similar nature to computers but unfortunately in the UK we do not have a similar system to check if someone is eavesdropping to our conversations or texts by dialling a code on our mobile phone. Phone tapping is not legally allowed and if you suspect some has tapped your device you need to report the case to the Police immediately.
Unless a malicious software used there would be no way to trace a number in the UK unless legal enforcement is involved. Do not trust the malicious software to track a phone number as it won’t only trace a person but will access all your traffic in the phone as well.