Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored?

[MattSh]

It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move. The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world — without you ever even suspecting something is awry.

...

Simple surveillance

You don’t have to plant a CIA-style bug to conduct surveillance any more. A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.

All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. The site sends a single text message to the phone that requires one response for confirmation. Once the response is sent, you are locked in to their location and can track them step-by-step. The response is only required the first time the phone is contacted, so you can imagine how easily it could be handled without the phone’s owner even knowing.

Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.

Advanced eavesdropping

So you’ve figured out where someone is, but now you want to know what they’re actually doing. Turns out you can listen in, even if they aren’t talking on their phone.

Dozens of programs are available that’ll turn any cell phone into a high-tech, long-range listening device. And the scariest part? They run virtually undetectable to the average eye.

Take, for example, Flexispy. The service promises to let you “catch cheating wives or cheating husbands” and even “bug meeting rooms.” Its tools use a phone’s microphone to let you hear essentially any conversations within earshot. Once the program is installed, all you have to do is dial a number to tap into the phone’s mic and hear everything going on. The phone won’t even ring, and its owner will have no idea you are virtually there at his side.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/05/05/cell-phone-spying-is-your-life-being-monitored/

[midnight]

1. If you suspected you were being monitored. It seems that

the courts don't care.

[KharmaTrain]

2. People Have Been Tracking Cellphones For Years

It's no great mystery...all the equipment is out there...scanners and other equipment that's very legal to listen in on both police and cellphone calls. They're using public airwaves and thus the legality of listening isn't in question...it's what you do with what you hear. It's still illegal to record a cellphone call (anyone remember the bullshit with Gnewt Gingrich?) but you can listen, you can track...no law says you can't. Just something to think about when you pick up the cellphone...it's never been private and doubtful it ever will be.

[ThomWV]

3. Remember 1984?

In 1984 the watching monitors were omnipresent. No one ever thought we could have a Government that could afford to place monitoring equipment where it could oversee every citizen - but we were more than happy to spend our own money to buy one for ourselves. Not only can the dam things tell the world where you are, let the world listen in on what you are saying and what is being said to you, most of the damned things can even take pictures - another feature that you can be sure is controllable remotely.

I don't even think it makes any difference if the damned things are turned off.

[tom_paine]

4. "I don't even think it makes any difference if the damned things are turned off."

If that is not the case now, then it will undoubtedly be the case soon.

It's probably the case now, though. 60-40 chance it is.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Now I'm gonna take that shoebox I've been savin' and wrap it with

aluminum foil... put my cell in it and see if I can find it on the service described.

[wildbilln864]

14. As long as the battery is in....

it can monitor the surroundings. :hi:

[lonestarnot]

5. Multipurpose spying popcorn poppers.

[Echo In Light]

6. LOL...I remember that

[captainmorgan]

8. Hopefully not

I don't want my hot conversations with my girlfriends to be made public.

[djp2]

9. WEBCAM SPYS?

Makes you wonder if all the computers with webcams (built in cams) have been hacked (or embedded) with software to allow 1884 spying? Maybe they are watching you as you type, right now!!!

[anigbrowl]

10. Yeah, that's really fascinating

A bunch of people peering at computer monitors. You could of course, learn how to tell what data is being transferred in and out of your 'puter. Also, google 'sousveillance'.

[reggie the dog]

11. Unplug

the damn webcam, I would never buy a computer with one buit in.

[Arctic Dave]

17. Yes, you can be spied on with them.

Its signal is no different from any other electronic signal.

[Deja Q]

12. Cool! Will they send it to American Idol; have that Simon guy crack a joke worse than mine?

It's easily done, you know!

[LibertyorDeath]

13. Remove the battery when not in use

Problem solved.

[SoCalDem]

15. If anyone WANTS to track you, they can do it easily

and have been able to for years..

Every time you use your ATM or ANY credit card, a record of exactly where you were at any exact time..and what you bought, is recorded..

Since the magnetic "strips" on the back of the cards were introduced, you HAVE been tracked..:)

For 99.9999% of us, it's no biggie if "someone" finds out about that wicker basket we bought at 4:07 PM at Target...but for many people who thought they were anonymous, and end up arrested/detained/etc...it can draw a pretty thorough map of who you are, what you buy, and where you were..

[truedelphi]

16. Also as someone who takes care of the elderly - It is interesting how baby monitors pick up

ENTIRE Cell ph conversations.

I don't know if this woul dwork somewhere flat like Iowa, but in hilly California,
One elderly client was tremendously entertained by all the cell ph activity in her neighborhood. USing just a simple baby monitor, she enjoyed listeneing into the neighbors who fought over the phone.

And the conversations that were all lovey dovey on the phone.

But at least she was an honest person. (Nosy yes, but no intentions to embezzle.) We would often hear people doing bank transactions on their cell phone - repeating their bank account number, giving the last four of their Social security, etc. It doesn't take a lot for someone to listen in.

If a cheap $ 30 baby monitor can hear yr calls, imagine what someone with th emotivation to p-urchase more sophisticated equipment might hear.

[LeftyMom]

18. Baby monitors used to pick up cordless phone conversations (like ten years ago and before)

Since then, phones and monitors have both moved to higher frequencies and digital scrambling for privacy and to minimize interference.

But yeah, if you're on an OLD cordless house phone, any idiot can listen in, so don't do business on that phone.