Security and Privacy at Risk
"I cannot believe this is true," were the words of my wife that caught my attention. "What's wrong?" I asked her. What she said next left me speechless.
She was reading a news article published on Chicago Sun Times online*. The article reports that anyone using a cell phone or a land line phone is at risk of having their phone records sold to just about anyone for less than $150.
A screenshot of locatecell.com selling personal phone records.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the law currently doesn't prohibit the sale of these personal records, though it certainly feels like a gross invasion of one's privacy. While your financial information is protected under law from such "pretexting" no law exists to protect the personal information that can be leaked from such deceptive tactics.
Curious, I pulled up the web site of locatecell.com and was once again shocked. This time by their claim that they can provide the cellular and land line phone records of anyone within "1 to 4 hours during business days on orders received by 5pm."
It's time for phone companies to make it harder for prying eyes to get to our information.
Some, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York have already been working to pass legislation that will make sales of personal phone records illegal.
For our protection, there needs to be a waiting period and checks and balances in place to confirm that the legitimate owner of these records requested the information.
Another possibility to better protect our phone records, and thus privacy, would be to have the phone records sent only to the address on file with the phone company. This would prevent companies like locatecell.com from duping the phone companies out of our records.
This serious threat affects not only private citizens but also our law enforcement, military and national security. Something needs to be done.
* The Chicago Sun Times article can be accessed online at http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-privacy05.html
Farhan Mashraqi is a computer and Internet security consultant in Lavonia Georgia and can be reached at comphelpsc@yahoo.com
She was reading a news article published on Chicago Sun Times online*. The article reports that anyone using a cell phone or a land line phone is at risk of having their phone records sold to just about anyone for less than $150.
A screenshot of locatecell.com selling personal phone records.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the law currently doesn't prohibit the sale of these personal records, though it certainly feels like a gross invasion of one's privacy. While your financial information is protected under law from such "pretexting" no law exists to protect the personal information that can be leaked from such deceptive tactics.
Curious, I pulled up the web site of locatecell.com and was once again shocked. This time by their claim that they can provide the cellular and land line phone records of anyone within "1 to 4 hours during business days on orders received by 5pm."
It's time for phone companies to make it harder for prying eyes to get to our information.
Some, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York have already been working to pass legislation that will make sales of personal phone records illegal.
For our protection, there needs to be a waiting period and checks and balances in place to confirm that the legitimate owner of these records requested the information.
Another possibility to better protect our phone records, and thus privacy, would be to have the phone records sent only to the address on file with the phone company. This would prevent companies like locatecell.com from duping the phone companies out of our records.
This serious threat affects not only private citizens but also our law enforcement, military and national security. Something needs to be done.
* The Chicago Sun Times article can be accessed online at http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-privacy05.html
Farhan Mashraqi is a computer and Internet security consultant in Lavonia Georgia and can be reached at comphelpsc@yahoo.com
posted by Frank at 7:01 PM
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