Comments on: So much for #31#

So much for #31#

riffola — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:48:51 -0800

$110 gets you last 100 calls made by any cellphone. Apparently it is legal.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:51:37 -0800

If Skype considers following suit, there will be blood.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:56:37 -0800

*mental note to use payphone from now on when calling 976-redhotanalsluts*

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:56:54 -0800

I don't understand the logistics, but I'm not willing to pay $110 to find out.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:02:31 -0800

I like that The same website that carries the news also has advertizements for those same services...

By: Peter H

Peter H — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:11:31 -0800

*mental note to use payphone from now on when calling 976-redhotanalsluts* We told you last time, it doesn't matter what phone you're using, we don't want your business!

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:12:27 -0800

I thought you needed a subpoena to get these records. What are the logistics, and how is it legal?

By: afflatus

afflatus — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:13:29 -0800

Um, the article cites "a local television studio" and instead of showing us any of these alleged services, they say "Some services they offer which is very scary! I am not going to provide a link sorry! More of an informational post". I call bullshit...and terrible grammar. All links in the article appear to go to advertisements. Unless I'm really missing something, this is complete garbage.

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:19:35 -0800

This is almost certainly a hoax. Flagging and moving on.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:21:26 -0800

afflatus writes "Unless I'm really missing something, this is complete garbage." Apparently it's likely illegal, but not covered by federal law, and quite real, according to this Washington Post article. Of course, Federal law protects the music and movie industry, going so far as to force us to buy additional hardware to protect their copyrights. But when it comes to you and me who can't afford to hire a lobbyist, too bad.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:24:00 -0800

Not a hoax. According to an article on the Epic West site, these records are called CPNI and are freely shared among your phone company and its clients, unless you opt out. EPIC recently made a formal petition seeking to prevent this type of sale of CPNI.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:24:25 -0800

scooped by orthogonality.

By: cloeburner

cloeburner — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:33:52 -0800

Just in case anyone was wondering, here is the site they refuse to link to: LocateCell. Anyone who pays 100 bucks to know this stuff has to be pretty sleazy.

By: jellicle

jellicle — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 10:00:14 -0800

It has been my experience that most Americans believe that there are laws protecting their privacy in a wide variety of situations. That is, if they personally believe that the revelation of a particular piece of information is invasive, they also believe there is a law against that revelation. In almost all cases they are wrong. The United States has very little protection for most information about you. There are some laws about health information, video and book borrowing records.... and that's about it. Anything financial about you is freely bought and sold. Anything you do that creates a record with a company is freely bought and sold unless it's specifically outlawed, and there are only a few laws. Nations with real privacy laws have a blanket protection law and exceptions. The United States has a default of zero and a few protections.

By: lowlife

lowlife — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 10:21:09 -0800

There was a story in the Canadian newsmagazine Macleans about how they collected similar information about the Federal Privacy Commissioner's phone records. The article is available on the Macleans website, as is a follow-up on the response to it.

By: Saucy Intruder

Saucy Intruder — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 10:44:00 -0800

OK, I admit it, I sometimes order pizza from Domino's.

By: horsewithnoname

horsewithnoname — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 10:47:07 -0800

Here's a list of opt-out resources.

By: matty

matty — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:17:27 -0800

http://www.datatraceusa.com/products.asp

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:21:15 -0800

According to the site linked to by rxrfrx this would not appear to be legal. EPIC urged the FCC to establish "more stringent security standards" for carriers releasing "Customer Proprietary Network Information" (CPNI). CPNI is a record of a subscriber's phone usage, including incoming and outgoing calls, that is collected and stored by carriers. Section 222 of the Communications Act protects individually identifiable CPNI by generally prohibiting disclosure absent customer consent. Within this legal framework, EPIC argues that carriers are not doing enough to safeguard CPNI from unauthorized disclosures.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:21:38 -0800

maybe not a hoax, but then people need to be quick while deciding about this. 100 calls ain't halfway through my statement some months. So if you're calling for some tryst, cal voicemail 99 times when your minutes are free. I just like that this info's probably just parked on a server somewhere, mandated by the government.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:35:22 -0800

Time for an anonymous prepaid cell phone.

By: limitedpie

limitedpie — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:50:22 -0800

I think this could be fun. It says you can pay $95 for "Find Current Cell Phone Number." (All you need is name and address.) Then the $110 for last 100 calls. Anyone have hot google fu ready? All I need is Karl Rove's address... What about this-- have a spare $215, lets give them this name and address: George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500. Let the games begin!

By: graventy

graventy — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:24:52 -0800

Saucy Intruder : " OK, I admit it, I sometimes order pizza from Domino's." *checks records* You call six times in the last two weeks 'sometimes'? It'd be cheaper to just open your own franchise.

By: lalochezia

lalochezia — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:50:15 -0800

"Time for an anonymous prepaid cell phone." err .......didnt they get rid of those after 9-11?

By: chipr

chipr — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:48:33 -0800

Looks like my provider (Sprint PCS) does not sell CPNI, but will use it internally (in other Sprint divisions) for marketing purposes. That's reassuring. (And it's surprising to find there are practices that are too evil for even a phone company to do.) If you are concerned, it's probably worth checking the privacy policy of your phone provider.

By: 235w103

235w103 — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:34:55 -0800

err .......didnt they get rid of those after 9-11? Not according to a "Law & Order" I recently saw, but I've never actually seen one in my life.

By: caddis

caddis — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 04:04:47 -0800

disposable prepaid cell phones