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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.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 7:47 am
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This isn’t really anything new. That ability has ALWAYS existed. The base station knows which cell you are in, and knows who pays for the phone.
Now, this is essentially the same. You can defeat it by:
1) Turning off your phone.
2) use a pay as you go feature.
I also strongly suspect you can “block” this from your provider’s website.
Anyone who thinks you can do this is welcome to try to track me *^^*
Comment by Pat Collins Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 8:28 am
Sorry your posts were temporarily held, Pat, it was a glitch on my end.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 8:36 am
This should not be a surprise to anyone with a basic technology sense. Any type of information or transaction that can be sent or stored electronically regardless of how small or brief has a “life span” to it. An electronic audit trail is the same concept as the paper audit trail. Make that phone call / email / ftp / financial / newsgroup transfer. There is a record of the transaction. May not always get the text or conversation, but the facts of when, length, and where is recorded somewhere. It is the price of technology that we all use everyday. Want to reformat that hard drive? Software exists to reset it back to where it was. For the truely paranoid, if cell phone conversations in Iraq can be listened to in Spokane, why can’t your phone be checked? That “Mission Impossible” and Dick Tracy wristwatch technology really exists. Unfortunately, ethics and law lag far behind where technology is going. The downside to convenience is starting to be realized
I can see it now:
“Judge, I was never in Vegas.”
“Really, the cell phone in your pocket says you were.”
Comment by zatoichi Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 9:05 am
No Problem, Rich.
You know, there was a murder case in southern IL that was solved by a website. The murderer taunted the police by sending them a mapquest map to where the body was at(or found, don’t remember). The FBI was able to track that map to the IP that created it, and to the house that the connection came from.
Pandora isn’t around anymore, but stuff is still flying out of her box….
Comment by Pat Collins Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 9:24 am
Turning off the phone won’t do it. You have to unplug the battery.
Didn’t you see the Tribune story about the CIA evidence trail in the Italian kidnapping case? CIA agents left a trail of evidence by leaving their batteries in their phones while plotting a kidnapping in Italy.
This is scary, but its like surfing the net. You just need to be aware this is happening to us.
Comment by Goodbye Napoleon Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 9:34 am
In reply to Pat Collins,
I wanted to clarify some of your story. The case involved a serial killer from the St. Louis area and he sent a map from a popular internet mapping site to a local newspaper.
The only sad thing about the whole case is that any serial killer who has read up on prior killers and their capture will now not do exactly what he did.
Kudos to both law enforcement for finding him this way and the mapping site for seeing the reasoning to allow this kind of activity to be used by law enforcement.
Comment by Gish Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 9:47 am
Pat Collins has a good point…I think this technology is a good thing if we can use it to solve crimes. What if this data was used by the police to convict child abductors or molestors?
Wouldn’t we all be safer?
Comment by Hello Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 11:25 am
Now Only if McDermott Would have Ran for Governor or even against Peraica, All of the worlds problems would be solved
Comment by An Avid Reader Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 2:43 pm
It’s one debate about when and how the authorized police and governmetn agencies can use this technology… it is quite another issue to allow private companies or individuals to stalk you remotely. THAT is the part we need to be up in arms about, and you don’t have to claim they are linked, that you can’t have one without the other: you just cut off non-government/law enforcement users at the source - the phone company.
BTW Rich, thanks for not shutting down at five for the weekend: I’m a good state worker, and I wait to get home to read and post here, and it’s so frustrating to rush home and find in essense that ‘the bar is closed”, especially when the topic is juicy and I feel like should say something.
Comment by Fighting Ennui Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 5:57 pm
Most cell phones allow you to turn off the Location tracker on your phone…quite honestly I see no need for it to be activated unless 911 is dialed or there is an extreme situation. Do we know if disabling this feature in the settings actually works or is it just one of those things that makes you feel better but it doesn’t really work?
Comment by NI80 Sunday, Feb 5, 06 @ 9:28 pm
I agree with Avid Reader. We need McDermott now more than ever. If only he had taken on the 3rd District challenge or moved down ballot to the Governor’s race.
Comment by Punley Dieter Finn Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 10:39 am
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
Comment by Azzurra Saturday, Nov 4, 06 @ 4:05 pm