Cell Phone Records for Sale

tabdelgawad writes "The Washington Post has a good writeup on how 'data brokers' use various techniques to obtain cell phone records of individuals then offer them for sale to anyone who will pay. The data is obtained by either bribing phone company employees, or 'pretexting', or accessing unregistered customer accounts online. Although phone companies are the only source of this information (unlike, say SSNs which are available from many sources), one Cingular spokesman was quoted as saying that this is 'an infinitesimally small problem'."

Comments

If only I'd known sooner

[moxie.whatever]

All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours. ... Such records could be used by criminals, such as stalkers or abusive spouses trying to find victims.

Okay ... if you were already stalking someone, you probably pilfered their Verizon bill from the mail anyway. And if you have to provide a name, address, and phone number in order to get the info, how the heck are you supposed to use that to "find" someone? You already know where their phone and address - go to their damn house and start stalking them already!

Solution

[DogDude]

Simple solution:
1. Tie this problem in with "Terrorism" in some way.
2. Bush bombs the companies into oblivion in an attempt to distract voters.
3. Haliburton, with no competition whatsoever, gets the contract to rebuild said companies.
4. Bush & Cheney & friends profit!

Between #2 and #3, you'll have GREAT cell phone privacy!

I agree completely....Jews *do* taste like chicken

[SoylentG]

But here's a good question...

When Jesus had sex, who's name did he cry out....His own or his fathers?

--The only good nigger, is a dead nigger!