As if it isn’t bad enough that companies are selling cellphone calling records, now comes word that companies are allowing others to track cellphone users’ every movement - live.

On the website, I see the familiar number in my list of “GSM devices” and I click “locate”. A map appears of the area in which we live, with a person-shaped blob in the middle, roughly 100 yards from our home. The phone doesn’t go off at all. There is no trace of what I’m doing on her phone. I can’t quite believe my eyes: I knew that the police could do this, and telecommunications companies, but not any old random person with five minutes access to someone else’s phone. I can’t find anything in her mobile that could possibly let her know that I’m checking her location. As devious systems go, it’s foolproof. I set up the website to track her at regular intervals, take a snapshot of her whereabouts automatically, every half hour, and plot her path on the map, so that I can view it at my leisure. It felt, I have to say, exceedingly wrong. […]

Your mobile phone company could make money from selling information about your location to the companies that offer this service. If you have any reason to suspect that your phone might have been out of your sight, even for five minutes, and there is anyone who might want to track you: call your phone company and ask it to find out if there is a trace on your phone. Anybody could be watching you. It could be me.

Not good at all.

UPDATE: Our old pal Michael McDermott, who was once touted by commenters here for governor, also lobbies for a cellphone company. He sent this response a couple of minutes ago.

As you know, for nine years I have been the State Government Affairs person for Verizon Wireless in nine states in the Midwest, including our old stomping ground, Springfield.

I have been amazed by the stories that have been circulating — both in and out of news media — regarding the breach of the integrity of cell phone records and location identification. Some of the reports have been accurate. There are unscrupulous people out there that use “pre-texting” — or impersonation — in an attempt to obtain cell phone records for person profit.

These companies are usually armed with personal information about the account holder (like their social security number or mother’s maiden name) and use this information to penetrate our security measures. Armed with similar information, these companies could presumably access credit card company online databases, financial institutions websites, etc. These companies relentlessly try to circumnavigate the security measures of companies like mine in an effort to get something that doesn’t belong to them or that they have no right to review. Verizon Wireless was the first wireless provider to sue several of these companies, using existing state consumer fraud laws. Over the past year we succeeded in obtaining a restraining order against Source Resource and we have actions pending against others perpetrators including Locatecell.com and Global Information Group.

Verizon Wireless has a message for any company or individuals that attempt to unlawfully penetrate our customers’ information: We will catch you and we sue you. We will also work with law enforcement to pursue criminal actions against you and your companies.

Lastly, we know of no instance or circumstance where a Verizon Wireless customer’s location was determined by an outside source (like the internet). The only way Verizon Wireless will provide this information is through a court order or through location technology deployed by 911 systems (Public Safety Answering Points or “PSAPs”) using sophisticated equipment that was established for this purpose. Furthermore, the PSAPs must coordinate with the carriers to deploy this technology and it is only activated at the PSAP once a customer initiates a call to the 911 center. Other location technology can be initiated, by subpoena only, and requires the coordination of several engineers to deploy (in instances like kidnapping, etc).

Verizon Wireless takes this issue very seriously and I wanted your readers to know what was being done to protect their privacy. I’ll try to answer any questions on the blog but people can email me directly and I will do my best to answer their questions or concerns. Michael.mcdermott@verizonwireless.com.