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Your Cell Records For Sale Online, Cheap
AviN456 writes "The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that your phone records are for sale online to the general public. From the article 'The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.' One of these sites is selling cell phone records for $110 for a month's worth of calls. No court order needed, no credentials required. If they want your records and have the money, they get 'em."
Unfortunately, this issue is nothing new.
Lots of good info on this problem can be found here, courtesy of the good folks at EPIC.
And finally, you can choose to opt-out of the releasing of your phone data here (at least you can try...opt-out information isn't listed for many of the companies). Also, many of these data brokers employ less-than-legal means to obtain the phone data anyway.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
When I signed up for the account I just called them and they said they can also stop sharing information within Sprint themselves, and I did that too.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Two months ago, Macleans (Canadian magazine) ran a story on this, but they took it one step further: they bought the cell phone records of Canada's Privacy Commisssioner, Jennifer Stoddart. It was remarkably embarassing. Reading the Maclean's article was entertaining, so if any Canadian's missed it, check it out.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
RTFA. It's not the phone companies that are selling the data.
It's this way you see :
- selling the organs of their customers would make them a lot of cash but is considered to be *really* bad almost everywhere;
- selling every little bit of data they have about their customers is considered bad in much fewer places (and is apparently quite accepted in the US) so although it's not as lucrative, they went with that.
It's probably safe not to let them know you still have both your kidneys though.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
The fourth ammendment is generally read to concern one's privacy with regard to government intrusion. In this context, the intruder is a private corporation, and thus the 4th ammendment wouldn't explicitly apply.
For that reason, we have a wide array of law with regards to tresspass, publication of personal records of various sorts, etc. It just so happens that cell phone records are not yet covered. That said, the described activity cited as "pretexting" is probably illegal since it involves a fraudulent transaction (if you had an arrangement with your carrier to keep the information private, and a thrid-party was subverting that arrangment by pretending to be you).
Most europeans won't ever have this kind of problem with privacy and information selling. In Europe you can just go to the kiosk, buy a sim chip, buy some prepaid sim minutes, all without ID or a credit card. Use the phone for a few days, then toss the sim chip and put in a new one if you're paranoid. Thanks to our greedy, monopolistic telecom corporations over here, you get locked into 2-year contracts and have to give the company all kinds of private information upon sign-up including social security number.
There is an important issue being glossed over here: is the release of this information illegal or not?
The top article implies that it is illegal for the phone companies to share this data. They point to unscrupulous insiders, and acts of fraud on the part of private investigators and data miners.
But the information from EPIC and the FCC suggests a very different situation. According to these sites it is perfectly legal to share this data if the company adopts an "opt-out" policy and if the consumer has not exercised his right to opt-out. Well, of course most people have never heard of this and so they have not opted-out. Therefore it is completely legal for the companies to share your phone call lists!
I'm annoyed and frustrated that the press reports are getting this so wrong (as usual). By implying that the problem is a few illegal acts, necessarily commited furtively and relatively rarely, they hide the fact that this is a perfectly legal, above-board business which is presumably going along at a brisk rate selling everyone's call info!
I doubt it. These companies aren't sucking this info from some public data source. They obtain the information from pretending to be the phone owner and getting the company to tell them that phone's history.
That's not a very good generalization. In fact, in 1972 the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment's presumptive requirement of a judicial warrant applied to wiretaps in terrorism investigations involving purely domestic groups. The Court, however, took pains to the note that it was not purporting to define, much less restrict, the "scope of the President's surveillance power with respect to the activities of foreign powers, within or without this country." (Emphasis added.)
...
To get a broader view of the issue I suggest reading:
Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york20051220094 6.asp
September 10 America
http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200 512210614.asp
Why Bush Approved the Wiretaps
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york20051219133 4.asp
and best of all: http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200 512201735.asp
Warrantless Searches of Americans? That's Shocking!
Except when it happens every day.
What makes this president think he can invade the privacy of Americans without a warrant?
I don't know. Could it be the powers, long recognized by federal law, to:
Detain American citizens for investigative purposes without a warrant;
Arrest American citizens, based on probable cause, without a warrant;
Conduct a warrantless search of the person of an American citizen who has been detained, with or without a warrant;
Conduct a warrantless search of the home of an American citizen in order to secure the premises while a warrant is being obtained;
Conduct a warrantless search of, and seize, items belonging to American citizens that are displayed in plain view and that are obviously criminal or dangerous in nature;
Conduct a warrantless search of anything belonging to an American citizen under exigent circumstances if considerations of public safety make obtaining a warrant impractical;
Conduct a warrantless search of an American citizen's home and belongings if another person, who has apparent authority over the premises, consents;
Conduct a warrantless search of an American citizen's car anytime there is probable cause to believe it contains contraband or any evidence of a crime;
Conduct a warrantless search of any closed container inside the car of an American citizen if there is probable cause to search the car -- regardless of whether there is probable cause to search the container itself;
Conduct a warrantless search of any property apparently abandoned by an American citizen;
Conduct a warrantless search of any property of an American citizen that has lawfully been seized in order to create an inventory and protect police from potential hazards or civil claims;
Conduct a warrantless search -- including a strip search -- at the border of any American citizen entering or leaving the United States;
Conduct a warrantless search at the border of the baggage and other property of any American citizen entering or leaving the United States;
Conduct a warrantless search of any American citizen seeking to enter a public building;
Conduct a warrantless search of random Americans at police checkpoints established for public-safety purposes (such as to detect and discourage drunk driving);
Conduct warrantless monitoring of common areas frequented by American citizens;
Conduct warrantless searches of American citizens and their vessels on the high seas;
moo
use the service at: http://locatecell.com/land.html or
:)
http://locatecell.com/gpage.html to
reverse lookup the owner and address of this number:
Phone: 8663767730 source: http://locatecell.com/contact.html
its purely free if they are hiding, as stated, no data returned = free
and guaranteed accurate = false
a whois shows address in Virginia. though no Langley
fuck that.
Dunno where you live...but I as a normal citizen (none of what you listed) can perfectly legally carry a concealed gun. Many states have CC licenses you can get quite easily.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
No, because then they become an agent of the government and are held to the same rules.
A police officer can't ask someone else to do something (perform a search) that they are not permitted to do. IANAL but I assume any evidence gained in this fashion would be thrown out of any court trial.
More on this argument here
- 1. Opt out (http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs1aplus-cpni.ht
m )
- 2. Emails/call your local phone companies, and scream about it.
- 3. Ditto locateacell (http://locatecell.com/contact.html)
- 4. Complain to FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html)
- 5. Write to your representative (http://www.house.gov/writerep/. I'm sure *they* wouldn't want to see their records out in the public either!
- ...
- n. And we all profit from increased privacy
If we make enough noise about it, something might be done. Squeaky wheel etc etc.