Why worry about FISA? For $110 you can spy on anyone

[kevinmc]

The most invasive $110 anyone will ever spend

This is huge. Beyond huge: Anyone can buy a list of your incoming and outgoing phone calls, cell or land-line, for $110 online.

The bombshell was reported in a Chicago Sun-Times story. Aravosis decided to try it out:

In a nutshell, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a story two days ago about a Web site that sells phone records, for cells and land-lines, for $110 a pop. The company boasts on its own Web site:

Give us the cell phone number and we will send you the calls made from the cell phone number.

So I went to their site, plopped down $110, and within a day I had a list of every single phone number that called my cell, or that I called from my cell, for the month of November. I even had the dates the calls were made, and for a premium I could find out how long the calls were.

Journalists, politicians, businessmen, abused spouses, law enforcement, and everyone frickin' else -- your business is now everyone else's business for the low, low price of $110.

Not only must this be plugged immediately, and this service shut down, but whoever is giving this company these phone records must pay. A lot.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/7/16229/48489

[rockymountaindem]

1. Holy cow

:scared:

[sepulveda]

10. old news

see my other post.
fwiw, smart criminals (there are a few) use throwaway cells.

otoh, yer average law abiding citizen keeps the same cell for years, and doesn't realize that every call is logged, and readily accessible to private businesses (far more so than law enforcement databases)

[annabanana]

2. Or as B*sh agreed during his last press conference..

Those with any expectations of privacy can just "suck it up".

[Hydra]

3. Just think- this is what the gov't has as basic service

How about transcripts, voiceprint identification, location when calling...

That's sick that you can get that for $110 though. No wonder I hate cell phones.

[thecrow]

5. Land lines, too... It can also do land lines.

[lapfog_1]

4. yeah... but it's not as good as knowing

exactly what was said by both parties on those phone calls, not to mention email and internet phone.

Yes, it needs to be fixed. We need a whole new set of privacy laws... not simply stopping the invasion of privacy laws like the Orwellian named "Protect America Act".

[Aviation Pro]

6. Apparently a lot of PIs use this service....

...to try and catch a wandering hubby or wifey. News flash to the cuckolded hubby or wifey, fuck your spouse more and you won't have a need for a PI or this service. (Also, try not bringing work home and try to treat your spouse with the respect and dignity they deserve - that works too).

[unblock]

11. interesting take on cheating. apparently it's all the victim's fault.

personally, i tend to think that cheating is a sign of two things:
(1) a relationship that sucks and was probably doomed whether there was cheating or not and
(2) a morally defective cheater who can't fathom breaking up first and THEN having sex with someone else.

part (1) implies that the cockolded (love that word!) parner is often not blame-free. on the other hand, it takes two to make a relationship work but only one to ruin it.

[Aviation Pro]

13. You forgot the second part between the parenthesis....

...as in treat your spouse with dignity and respect. This seems to work in my household.

[demgurl]

7. This was reported months ago and I only have one thing to say....

what was Carl Rove's and Dick Cheney's cell phone number again??????

[sepulveda]

8. yesterday's news

not surprising to me at all

i've done a LOT of intelligence work, in law enforcement. i have long claimed, and few really understand this, that PRIVATE businesses have far far far far more intel on the average person than govt. has - especially non-criminal intel.

the old skool fear was of "big brother".

the REAL fear, already realized - is of little brother.

private industry has far less regulation on the intel they can keep, share, and collect than govt. ever has

whenever we wanted a lot of intel on somebody we use private resources NOT govt. intelligence databases. the former are often much more extensive, AND require no probable cause or even reasonable suspicion to access

the average citizen, with a bit of a clue, and some spare $$$ can find FAR FAR FAR more about you than the average cop can. it's not even close.

what surprises me is that people are JUST starting to understand this. it's been that way for ages.

[wildbilln864]

9. Holy shit....

someone needs to get a list of incoming and outgoing calls of the 911 passengers.

[Beam Me Up]

12. I don't call terrorists so I'm not worried. /sarcasm/ n/t

[Heywood J]

14. Sue the companies that provide this and your phone company.

They got it from someone - your phone company and your mailbox are the only ones with access to that, and it means the company has been divulging private and personal information. Bonus if their agreements or privacy policy say they won't do that. I smell a class action in the works.


I wonder how much of that $110 goes to pay bribes or pay hackers.

[orleans]

15. THIS IS GREAT!

ok--who can pony up the money to get republican's cell phone calls.

i'll start with larry craig.

who's with me?

[lonestarnot]

16. numbers called are not the same as conversations to those numbers.

[RainDog]

17. not only that...

I saw an advert for some device that amplifies sound (for the hearing impaired in one case) but the ad also showed people listening to other people's conversations!! your neighbor freaking spying on you!!!

it's sick.