Mobile Operators -- Now Empowering Stalkers
from the who-needs-restraining-orders dept
The concept of tracking people via their cellphones is a touchy one, and always raises privacy concerns. But most efforts aren't as questionable as the new offering from a company in the UK which, after an initial approval via text message, tracks a phone without giving its owner any indication it's doing so. A writer for The Guardian has shown how easy it is to get approval for the service by stealing somebody's phone for just a few minutes, quickly giving him the type of service that the Department of Justice has been fighting for in courts here in the US. Ths issue here isn't the service, but rather the problem that this location information is so readily available. This company might have an approval system in place, but it's so easily circumvented, and a company with slightly less scruples could just ignore it anyway. Given services like this and US carriers' inability -- or just unwillingness -- to keep call records private, the idea that mobile operators really care about customer privacy is looking a pretty laughable one.
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The Poison Pen
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hmm
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No Subject Given
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Technology
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Cell Phone Tracking
The question at hand is whether or not it is legal for a government agency to use this information and what rights the carrier has to provide services based off this information.
If you haven't already made the leap in the thought, similar concerns also exist with the current WiFi 802.11b/g protocols and most likely future protocol implementations. It doesn't matter if the data is encrypted or not, you weren't looking for the data, just the person's location that is sending the data...
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Already exploited
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gps phone tracking
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