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The Sun-Times has a follow-up today to yesterday’s piece about the ease of obtaining cell phone calling records.
The Illinois governor and attorney general moved Thursday to end the sale of telephone records without customers’ knowledge, a practice that worries privacy experts and law enforcement agencies.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that the Chicago Police Department and FBI are concerned about the potential for criminals to track officers’ cell phone calls through Web services. Attorney General Lisa Madigan responded by issuing subpoenas to one Internet service, locatecell.com, highlighted in the newspaper’s story.
“We will be asking locatecell.com how it obtains the telephone detail information it sells and whether it is through legal means,” said Madigan’s spokeswoman, Melissa Merz.
On another front, Gov. Blagojevich announced he will seek legislation this spring making it illegal for brokers to sell telephone account records and other personal information.
The legislation is supported by Senate President Emil Jones (who is doing very well after his angioplasty, I’m told). I hope that bill moves fast.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 8:00 am
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How about a national “do not track list”? You can opt out of being tracked with a simple phone call. Unless, of course, a non profit, a political campaign, or business you already have a relationship with wants your records….
Funny how some things are considered private but others aren’t.
What’s the going rate to sell my credit card transaction history to ‘organizations who provide other products or services I might be interested in’?
Comment by Zoom Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 8:34 am
My big fear is for informants. If someone wants to know who in their group is informing the government or law enforement about crimes, all they would have to do is pull up the cell calls.
Comment by Leigh Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 8:43 am
Damn right I want to put an end to this practice. It’s about privacy. My privacy. And any calls made to state numbers from my campaign were obviously misdialed numbers.
Comment by Rod B. Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 9:36 am
Government officials can get a hold of about any information of ours that they want.
Why shouldn’t we be able to see theirs?
Comment by Big Brother's Little Brother Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 9:46 am
I think someone should do an investigation into the cell phone records of all Mayor Daley’s aides and Mayor Daley himself. That could reveal some interesting things.
Comment by daley=corruption Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 10:36 am
I would imagine locatecell.com is going to cash in as fast as they can, while they can. Technology is great, but there is always a slippery slope to it somewhere that someone finds.
Comment by zatoichi Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 11:16 am
This is going to be funny when Jones, Madigan, and Blago realize this issue is under the jurisdiction of the Feds in DC.
Of course, that won’t stop them from going through the motions of passing a law that will demostrate to us how much they really care about us.
Kind of like the law they passed outlawing human trafficking in Illinois last year. Whew! Thank God that was fianlly outlawed in 2005! To think it was happening in 2001, and 2002, and 2003, and 2004…
Comment by Heh Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 12:58 pm
Good luck to all if the company is not located in the U.S.
Comment by Papa Legba Friday, Jan 6, 06 @ 1:31 pm