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Legal Spying Via the Cell Phone System

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the totally-legal-yup-right dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Two researchers say they have found a way to exploit weaknesses in the mobile telecom system to legally spy on people by figuring out the private cell phone number of anyone they want, tracking their whereabouts, and listening to their voice mail."

8 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Uhm, bad headline. by dmgxmichael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just because it's possible doesn't make it legal.

    1. Re:Uhm, bad headline. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Clearly it ought to be legal though.

      What the fuck are you smoking that makes you think this should be legal?

    2. Re:Uhm, bad headline. by SQLGuru · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Saw a line about spoofing caller id info. That isn't legal.....now.

  2. Re:Legal? What about the new caller ID law... by Qwell · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Plus the whole breaking into voicemail boxes thing.

    --
    As of 10/06/03, I hate COBOL developers.
  3. What makes them think this is legal....? by sampson7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As far as I can tell, they assert that it is legal, therefore they think it is legal. Come on folks -- just because you aren't breaking or entering, or murdering someone does not make what you are doing "legal." There are all sorts of privacy laws that come into play here -- and I strongly suspect that I can find at least one prosecutor/judge/jury combo in this country that disagrees. I can't even begin to describe how many laws could be implicated by breaking into someone's voice mail!

    Yes, IAAL, but IANYL.

  4. Not quite by Itninja · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They say it's legal, and cite no sources (i.e.'we asked our lawyer"). They seem to indicate that since EU telco 'offer it for free', then it must be legal. I would love to see someone defend this in court; especially if they are using the system to track someone covertly.

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
    1. Re:Not quite by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nelson Rockefeller said of his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, "He didn't break any laws. But a lot of laws were passed because of what he did."

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  5. Maybe not by laing · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They may successfully argue that it is still legal. Their method is to call themselves with spoofed caller-id. The network fills in the name associated with the phone number and they build their database. Since they are only calling themselves and they know they are spoofing, they are not "intending to defraud or deceive" anyone.