Question. Can cell phones be used as bugs? I was wondering because

[alfredo]

my carrier is Verizon and I am wondering if they can use turned on cell phones to listen in on unaware users?

[LostinVA]

1. Yes -- I suggest you immediately smash your cell phone to bits

They also have GPS tracking devices installed. The men in black are waiting at your house.

[alfredo]

9. As long as they brought a covered dish or some beer.

[truebrit71]

14. Are you being sarcastic or do you simply not know...because they can do BOTH the things you made fun

...of...

Men in black? Maybe not, but GPS tracking and turning them into bugs? Hell yes they can.

[LostinVA]

17. Yeah -- I know they can do both of those things

It's not exactly a worry of mine, though.

[truebrit71]

28. Glad to see that a totalitarian government with unlimited track and trace of its citizenry...

...doesn't worry you...

:eyes:

[LostinVA]

29. I'll worry when we catch up to England on surveillance

[RedCappedBandit]

36. Well, as long as we're not the worst.

[CRF450]

53. Why should that be a worry?

I think you people are too paranoid about this stuff. I like the fact that cell phones have GPS tracking, if an emergancy happens far away from population, 911 EMS can find your location and you'd be rescued.

[LostinVA]

58. And most of my conversations involve

how much I hate NJ traffic, the dog, reality TV, what's for dinner et cetera. I don't think anyone wants to be listening in on me.

And, I like the GPS feature for when I trail run: even though I probably won't be able to get a signal, at least the authorities can find me if I break a leg or something.

[CRF450]

66. Actually I get a signal at where I ride.

And I never ride alone out in the wilderness, but the GPS thing would still be used for the EMS to locate ya.

Wiretapping and other things related have been around since before GW took office, nothing new really.

[Echo In Light]

61. Public indifference is the key to tip-toe totalitarianism

Trivialize, downplay, dismiss, disavow.

[papau]

19. indeed it is rather easy! - good answer

[Jeffersons Ghost]

22. yep, when you're not even talking on them they track easier than falling off a log...

[MonkeyFunk]

52. GPS tracking?

No, they can't do that.

[LanternWaste]

31. Ha! My 1980's eras Soviet Weather Machine is far more...

Ha! My 1980's eras Soviet Weather Machine is far more advanced than cell-phone GPS's!


LostinVA's current tracking location-- Target acquired-- Long: 03:16:45 Lat 10:10:54. Code Red! Code Red! She's in a dress!!! I'm series1111 Ready vertical wind velocity! Almost there... almost there.... go! go! go!




:hide:

[LostinVA]

33. Wait -- I'm a dead Hollywood starlette?

:cry:

[LanternWaste]

34. Ummm... what I meant... I, um...

Ummm... what I meant... I, um...

Dead Hollywood Starlette = a shining beacon of entertainment and beauty who transcends both life and death.

(Whew... that was close)

[LostinVA]

35. That's much better

[MissB]

2. I have no idea.

I'm trying to figure out how my phone conversations *wouldn't* bore any listeners to fucking tears. :rofl:

[alfredo]

46. That's one way to get even. Bore them. You can also take a pocket comb

then tell the person on the other end to hold on for a data transfer. Drag your fingernail across the tines five or six times. It will drive Agent Mike crazy trying to figure out what that was.

[elehhhhna]

49. LMAO

[no_hypocrisy]

3. You can be located via your celphone if it has a GPS device inside it.

I don't know about the ability to listen.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

56. I've shut my GPS off. eom

[whistle]

4. Yep!

[TransitJohn]

5. I remember a few years ago

reading a news article about the feds getting a warrant to turn on **powered off** cell phones to listen in/tape conversations between mob members....they got convictions with this evidence.

[alfredo]

11. If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about, but

it is the government that is determining what is right or wrong.

[bdamomma]

21. and our rights are being taken away, no right to a lawyer either.

[alfredo]

42. A depression could tip us over to a full blown

neo con paradise: rich people lording over desperate people willing to do anything they're told to do just to survive.

[bdamomma]

51. sometimes desperate people can strike back at their owners too.

[alfredo]

63. That's what is happening in Iraq. They don't want us to make them in

our image.

[Xithras]

44. That was OnStar, not cellphones.

They turned on the cars OnStar systems to listen into conversations in the car.

[TransitJohn]

48. I'm pretty sure it was cell phones. eom

eom

[Mugu]

6. When in doubt

take the battery out.

Regards, Mugu

[navarth]

7. I dumped Verizon and switched to Credo. No problems.

As far as the listening thing, the only way to be sure is take out the battery.

[EnviroBat]

18. Hey I was thinking about going with Credo too.

Is their service good? Have you been happy with them?

I was just wondering how it is doing business with this guy:

[navarth]

26. That guy's a bad actor, keep your atom gun out of it's holster at all times.

My opinion on Credo is postive, see post #25 below.

[conflictgirl]

23. Isn't their service actually provided by Sprint, though?

I used to have them when they were Working Assets, and the actual carrier was Sprint.

I was unfortunately not very impressed with the service :( but it may have been better in a different city.

[navarth]

25. Yep. Sprint. BUT:

at least some of my money that's getting paid to a (possibly) evil company is being diverted into good causes....and Credo swears up and down that 'we just use the Sprint pipe; we control all the info' or something to that effect. Do I believe them? Ehh...hard to say if they're lying about that.

Bottom line: I was able to tell Verizon to GET FUCKED (we're switching my wife too) and some of the money gets diverted in a good direction.

Service has been fine here, moving all over the Greater Detroit area.

also they give a 30 day trial period before you have to sign a contract and they give it to you free until your previous contract is up.

I don't work for Credo, I just like the idea.

[htuttle]

8. Yes, the technique is often referred to as a 'roving bug'

It used to be called an 'infinity bug' when it's done on a phone connected to a land line.

[alfredo]

10. Thanks.

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that all telephones can be used as passive monitoring devices

Excepting the ones that can actually be shut off.

[alfredo]

20. A land line phone can be unplugged.

[L. Coyote]

27. Yes, the microphone wire can be remotely accessed while the phone is not in use.

That "phone guy" beside the road at a telephone line junction box, if a headset is on, might be surveillance.

I scared the crap out of one of them when he turned around and I was sitting right beside him smiling.
I'd been listening in to his difficulties hearing me in the house for quite a while.
He was trying to explain his failure to hear me in the house to a supervisor.

I've also photographed them, of course.

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. My solution is to always be singing Rick Astley songs.

:shrug:

[truebrit71]

13. Yes they can...Google it...

..you will find some interesting info out there...

[LeftyMom]

15. Cars with OnStar too.

There was a case where the cops got a warrant and used the car's OnStar speakerphone to listen in to some Mafia guys whenever they were in the car.

[bobthedrummer]

16. Sure can, and have been. eom.

[L. Coyote]

24. Yes, to take photos too, GPS location, track movements, etc. if the battery is in it!

If you want to disable your cell phone as a tracking or surveillance device, take out the battery.

If you are in a public place, like a bar, every cell in the place can be used as simultaneous locators, live microphones, and cameras.

And remember, just because your are being followed does not mean you are paranoiod! :rofl:

[krispos42]

32. looks like it!

Roving Bug in Cell Phones Used By FBI to Eavesdrop on Syndicate

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

<snip>

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola RAZR are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.

<more>

http://www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2006/12/roving-bug-in-cell-phones-used-by-fbi.html

And don't forget Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_tracking

[MaryCeleste]

37. Just take out the battery...

[guitar man]

38. If they can...

...and they've been listening to me today,they must be furious. The phone's in my pants pocket and I've been sitting here farting almost nonstop all day. :evilgrin:

[hyphenate]

39. Didn't you watch "Burn Notice?"

Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) straight tells you you can use a cellphone for a "bug" and shows you how!

That's okay--it made it past its first season (on USA) and will be back for a second. Meanwhile, you can go to the USA Network website (http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/) and watch episodes you haven't seen before.

Actually, I would say it's possible, but I think the problems would kill it--triangulating your location through cell towers, whether you're on the phone for consistent lengths of time (I only turn mine on when I'm going out, otherwise it's off getting recharged, or perhaps on as an MP3 player), etc.

Seriously, watch Burn Notice, though (and no I don't work for USA (though I did work for their owners (Universal) for nearly ten years), because it's a lighthearted look at a spy who got left out in the cold, and because Bruce Campbell plays the hero's best buddy. And from what I gather, they had an ex-CIA guy as the consultant on the show, so a lot of it has happened, is happening or will happen. :)

[MiniMe]

40. The OP wanted to know if they could turn them on

I have never heard of a phone that will turn on remotely.

[AlCzervik]

41. me neither and if they could they would be so bored listening in on me.

[Radical Activist]

59. Yes, it can be done.

[blues90]

43. I don't have a clue about tech stuff

I know my phone has a GPS thing in it , no camera or anything else . My old phone worked fine until I put in my shirt pocket and reached to flush the toilet and it fell in .

I got a used one and now I guess I can be tracked . Last time I took the battery out I lost all the speed dial settings , all two of them .

I have an older phone and tried to activate it but verizon could not find the serial number even though it's a verizon phone .

I probably got an idiot in cust service .

[Xithras]

45. No. They CAN track your location, and they can listen to calls, but they can't turn it on.

Powering a phone up requires inputs local to the phone itself. It's like asking whether the phone company can turn on your house phone to listen into conversations in your living room. They can open up the LINE, but if the handset itself isn't active they're not going to hear anything.

[JDPriestly]

47. I have heard that they can.

[retread]

50. See link below:

http://www.news.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

[CRF450]

54. You people are too paranoid about this stuff.

I like the fact that cell phones have GPS tracking, if an emergancy happens far away from population, 911 EMS can find your location and you'd be rescued. I do alot of dirtibke trail riding, so it would come in pretty handy if I take a fall and get injured.

[ThomWV]

55. And you are not paranoid enough

Just because you don't think anyone's out to get you doesn't mean that noone is.

[Echo In Light]

62. Freedoms Lost Under G.W. Bush

http://baltimorechronicle.com/020105ChuckBaldwin.shtml

[alfredo]

65. It's a lot easier to lose freedoms than to achieve them.

[Echo In Light]

67. Once gone...unlikely to return

[alfredo]

68. We do have a recourse in our Declaration of Independence.

[Radical Activist]

57. Absolutely, yes.

Switching from Verizon won't help. It can be done with any cell phone. Any conversation you have can be listened to and you can be viewed through the camera on your phone as well. The only way to be sure it isn't being used as a bug is to remove the battery.

[Rosemary2205]

60. Only when you are yakking while driving.

I suggest you remove the battery while in the car so the feds won't know where you are meeting for the drug deal.

:)

[Wizard777]

64. Yes, They can do that with the phone in your home too. n/t