Your mobile phone records are for sale on the Internet

[mandy]

...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.

Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.

Suspicious spouses can see if their husband or wife is calling a certain someone a bit too often...

In July, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission seeking an end to the sale of telephone records....

full article: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-...acy05.html

[Nat]

You know what they say - anything can be bought for a price.

My cell phone records can't be bought on the internet or anywhere else.  Oh yeah, wait a minute...that's because I don't have a cell phone. 


I talk on the phone all day at work so the last thing I want is to be on the phone after work on my own time so the last thing I want is a cell phone. 

It's scary when you think about it - things you think are private and no one will ever see aren't so private.

[mandy]

Update:

Wireless carriers and the United States government are looking to block individuals from obtaining, exposing and selling mobile phone calling records. On Wednesday, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) introduced legislation aimed at curbing the practice.

The Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 would create felony criminal penalties for stealing and selling the records of mobile phone, landline, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers.

The proposed laws specifically address perpetators who devise schemes to coax data out of carriers' employees or steal it by logging into users' online accounts. Such deceptive ploys by data brokers and their associates are often enough to get gullible customers and unscrupulous or naive corporate insiders to provide the information

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/i9mS0pgn...ords.xhtml

[jezebel]

Siy stressed that other information, including financial and health data, is being exposed in similar fashion.

"It's part of a larger problem," he said. "Cell phone records are not the only thing that brokers are selling."

>

[mandy]

Update: US judge bans pretexting:

In a victory for privacy advocates, a federal judge has ordered a US company to pay almost $200,000 and barred it from selling the phone records of individuals' phone records without their permission.

US District Judge William F. Downes of Wyoming entered a permanent injunction against a company called AccuSearch and its principal, Jay Patel. They advertised a service on a website called Abika-dot-com that made phone records of any individual available for a fee. Privacy watchdogs at the Federal Trade Commission filed suit in 2006, alleging the practice was illegal...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/29/...ng_ruling/