So much for #31#

November 29, 2005 8:48 AM

$110 gets you last 100 calls made by any cellphone. Apparently it is legal.
posted by riffola (25 comments total)

If Skype considers following suit, there will be blood.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:51 AM on November 29, 2005

*mental note to use payphone from now on when calling 976-redhotanalsluts*
posted by quonsar at 8:56 AM on November 29, 2005

I like that The same website that carries the news also has advertizements for those same services...
posted by delmoi at 9:02 AM on November 29, 2005

*mental note to use payphone from now on when calling 976-redhotanalsluts*

We told you last time, it doesn't matter what phone you're using, we don't want your business!
posted by Peter H at 9:11 AM on November 29, 2005

I thought you needed a subpoena to get these records. What are the logistics, and how is it legal?
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:12 AM on November 29, 2005

Um, the article cites "a local television studio" and instead of showing us any of these alleged services, they say "Some services they offer which is very scary! I am not going to provide a link sorry! More of an informational post".

I call bullshit...and terrible grammar.

All links in the article appear to go to advertisements. Unless I'm really missing something, this is complete garbage.
posted by afflatus at 9:13 AM on November 29, 2005

This is almost certainly a hoax. Flagging and moving on.
posted by grouse at 9:19 AM on November 29, 2005

afflatus writes "Unless I'm really missing something, this is complete garbage."

Apparently it's likely illegal, but not covered by federal law, and quite real, according to this Washington Post article.

Of course, Federal law protects the music and movie industry, going so far as to force us to buy additional hardware to protect their copyrights. But when it comes to you and me who can't afford to hire a lobbyist, too bad.
posted by orthogonality at 9:21 AM on November 29, 2005

Not a hoax.

According to an article on the Epic West site, these records are called CPNI and are freely shared among your phone company and its clients, unless you opt out. EPIC recently made a formal petition seeking to prevent this type of sale of CPNI.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:24 AM on November 29, 2005

scooped by orthogonality.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:24 AM on November 29, 2005

Just in case anyone was wondering, here is the site they refuse to link to: LocateCell.

Anyone who pays 100 bucks to know this stuff has to be pretty sleazy.
posted by cloeburner at 9:33 AM on November 29, 2005

It has been my experience that most Americans believe that there are laws protecting their privacy in a wide variety of situations. That is, if they personally believe that the revelation of a particular piece of information is invasive, they also believe there is a law against that revelation.

In almost all cases they are wrong. The United States has very little protection for most information about you. There are some laws about health information, video and book borrowing records.... and that's about it. Anything financial about you is freely bought and sold. Anything you do that creates a record with a company is freely bought and sold unless it's specifically outlawed, and there are only a few laws.

Nations with real privacy laws have a blanket protection law and exceptions. The United States has a default of zero and a few protections.
posted by jellicle at 10:00 AM on November 29, 2005

There was a story in the Canadian newsmagazine Macleans about how they collected similar information about the Federal Privacy Commissioner's phone records.

The article is available on the Macleans website, as is a follow-up on the response to it.
posted by lowlife at 10:21 AM on November 29, 2005

OK, I admit it, I sometimes order pizza from Domino's.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 10:44 AM on November 29, 2005

Here's a list of opt-out resources.
posted by horsewithnoname at 10:47 AM on November 29, 2005

http://www.datatraceusa.com/products.asp
posted by matty at 11:17 AM on November 29, 2005

According to the site linked to by rxrfrx this would not appear to be legal.

EPIC urged the FCC to establish "more stringent security standards" for carriers releasing "Customer Proprietary Network Information" (CPNI). CPNI is a record of a subscriber's phone usage, including incoming and outgoing calls, that is collected and stored by carriers. Section 222 of the Communications Act protects individually identifiable CPNI by generally prohibiting disclosure absent customer consent. Within this legal framework, EPIC argues that carriers are not doing enough to safeguard CPNI from unauthorized disclosures.
posted by caddis at 11:21 AM on November 29, 2005

maybe not a hoax, but then people need to be quick while deciding about this. 100 calls ain't halfway through my statement some months. So if you're calling for some tryst, cal voicemail 99 times when your minutes are free.

I just like that this info's probably just parked on a server somewhere, mandated by the government.
posted by Busithoth at 11:21 AM on November 29, 2005

Time for an anonymous prepaid cell phone.
posted by caddis at 11:35 AM on November 29, 2005

I think this could be fun. It says you can pay $95 for "Find Current Cell Phone Number." (All you need is name and address.) Then the $110 for last 100 calls. Anyone have hot google fu ready? All I need is Karl Rove's address... What about this-- have a spare $215, lets give them this name and address: George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500. Let the games begin!
posted by limitedpie at 12:50 PM on November 29, 2005

Saucy Intruder : " OK, I admit it, I sometimes order pizza from Domino's."

*checks records*
You call six times in the last two weeks 'sometimes'? It'd be cheaper to just open your own franchise.
posted by graventy at 1:24 PM on November 29, 2005

"Time for an anonymous prepaid cell phone."

err .......didnt they get rid of those after 9-11?
posted by lalochezia at 1:50 PM on November 29, 2005

Looks like my provider (Sprint PCS) does not sell CPNI, but will use it internally (in other Sprint divisions) for marketing purposes.

That's reassuring. (And it's surprising to find there are practices that are too evil for even a phone company to do.)

If you are concerned, it's probably worth checking the privacy policy of your phone provider.
posted by chipr at 8:48 PM on November 29, 2005

err .......didnt they get rid of those after 9-11?

Not according to a "Law & Order" I recently saw, but I've never actually seen one in my life.
posted by 235w103 at 12:34 AM on November 30, 2005

disposable prepaid cell phones
posted by caddis at 4:04 AM on November 30, 2005