For Kat: cell phone privacy

[KBCraig]

Just for Kat! 

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0206/304849.html

Buying and Selling Cell Phone Records
Tuesday February 21, 2006 10:15pm   Reporter: Jason Pederson   Posted By: Talisa Austin

In this internet and information age, your privacy is more at risk than ever before. If you think it takes a subpoena to get a look at your phone records, think again.

So what can we do that will actually stop big brother Bush?  We can turn the tables and start spying on them, thanks to commercially available phone records.

Democrats.com will reimburse you if you buy the records for an important phone number and discover gold when you get the records.

This offer was put out six weeks ago.  It went on to list more than two dozen prime targets and also directed readers to locatecell.com, one of the dozens of websites that have been selling cell records to the general public. 

We have no idea if anyone responded to this offer, but we do know that a couple weeks later the cell phone records of Arkansas native and Former Presidential Candidate General Wesley Clark were purchased for $89.95 by a Blogger.

(John Arvosis, Americablog.com)"I wanted to show people that if you can get a general and a presidential candidate's phone records, anybody's privacy could be violated."

(General Wesley Clark, Former Nato Commander)"It's just a feeling of...your privacy is being invaded and it feels that something that is personal...that belongs to you...is just thrown out there."

Kyle Ogden is a private investigator. Getting a copy of a cheating spouse's cell phone bill has helped him build many cases over the years.

(Kyle Ogden, Private Investigator)"If there is a case where cell phone records might be beneficial and we've been retained by a client, we will attempt to get cell phone records."

(Jason Pederson, Reporter)"Private investigators and law firms hire data brokers to get the phone records they need.  How do these data brokers get the phone bills?  They either lie and impersonate the customer in question, they pay an insider to get the information, or they hack into a phone company's computer system."

Even though cell records have been for sale for years, phone companies have only recently begun fighting back.

(Melody Eclavea, Cingular Wireless)"We have filed lawsuits against some of the most notorious of these companies that offer cell phone records for sale."

Most of the websites that were selling cell phone records have discontinued that service because of all the recent lawsuits and media attention. But we gave Ogden a cell phone number and in less than a day he had last month's bill.

(Ogden)"We've got a pretty good source.  Like I say, to my knowledge there is no law in place right now that says we can not purchase that information."

Getting a phone bill like this will cost you around $100 dollars.

But Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor and others have proposed legislation that would make the practice illegal. Pryor will be in Little Rock to discuss his bill Wednesday. 

[intergraph19]

What kind of records?  Just the list of numbers called and stuff, like I get in my bill or transcripts of recorded conversations?  Probly just the phone numbers and crap, nothing really good...

[KBCraig]

What kind of records?  Just the list of numbers called and stuff, like I get in my bill or transcripts of recorded conversations?  Probly just the phone numbers and crap, nothing really good...

Since this was being used for political purposes, with a bounty offered by democrats.com for "good" stuff, then a duplicate bill would be a goldmine. Numbers called, calls received, who, when, where, for how long...

I had to laugh at how the reporter questioned how you're going to protect yourself from "Big Brother Bush", then reported on Democrats trying to use nefarious means to get private information for use against political enemies. And investigators trying to find dirt on spouses, etc.

Kevin