Mobile Phone Technology - Privacy...

[Bugz]

The mobile phone is probably one of the most used gadgets in the world. Yet what many people don't know is that privacy on a phone is not all what it seems.

Did you know:

- Text messages are stored in external sources (not just on your phone!)
- You don't call the person directly, you call 'someone-in-effect' who calls the person. Privacy is once again lost.
- Leaving bluetooth on can enable someone who the right equipment to look at the ENTIRE contents of your phone. My bluetooth remained on and the equipment used was able to track my phone, it's make, it's serial number, text messages etc. etc.
- It's possible for people to steal your credit
- Police are able to gain information related to your phone that you may deem private.

With all this in mind and many other things, are you happy with the privacy we get on our phones? Should only we have access to our calls, our messages etc.

Discuss.

 

[Naffets]

Of course only we should have access to it, no real justification for anyone else to have access to your private data.

Mind you, these days, what is private? Your net is monitored, your landline is all logged etc.

 

[haarewin]

big brother is watching you!

 

[Congax]

- Police are able to gain information related to your phone that you may deem private.

This is hundred percent true, I'm currently developing a program as exam for IT for the police, and they showed me what neat stuff they can do. Ofcourse, I cannot reveal this information due to signing a contract etc ..

Don't know about the rest really, but surely no scriptkiddie is gonne keep himself busy by hacking into some random person his cellphone? Sure, they might use it for celebrities, important folks ...

I'm quite happy with the privacy, haven't yet heard anyone eavesdropping

 

[Chronictank]

its no secret that mobile phones arent secure to be honest, its well publicised and common knowledge nowdays tbh

 

[Jeremiah]

- Leaving bluetooth on can enable someone who the right equipment to look at the ENTIRE contents of your phone. My bluetooth remained on and the equipment used was able to track my phone, it's make, it's serial number, text messages etc. etc.

IIRC, Bluetooth discover on mobile phones is limited to only a make and a unique ID. They cant discover your phone number directly. They cant monitor your text messages through Bluetooth either since they are sent by SMS (but SMS is less secure than Bluetooh and thats saying something!) So if you put your phone on discover in a crowded room, you'd get a list of makes and IDs that dont uniquely identify your phone. They can call these ID's blindly to see who picks us, and then continue to call that ID, but the ID doesnt correspond to yoru phone number

 

[Congax]

IIRC, Bluetooth discover on mobile phones is limited to only a make and a unique ID. They cant discover your phone number directly. They cant monitor your text messages through Bluetooth either since they are sent by SMS (but SMS is less secure than Bluetooh and thats saying something!) So if you put your phone on discover in a crowded room, you'd get a list of makes and IDs that dont uniquely identify your phone. They can call these ID's blindly to see who picks us, and then continue to call that ID, but the ID doesnt correspond to yoru phone number

I can get MAC ID from PDA's when searching for bluetooth tho. Can't do jack shit with it tho, but still!

 

[Tombha]

And by wrapping your head in aluminum you will keep aliens out of your head...

 

[Roalith]

Secrecy on mobile phones is a bit pointless, seeing as most of the time you use them in a crowded space anyway...

 

[Kagato]

can't say im that bothered, only really use mine for texting anyway. Given how many times your captured on CCTV through out the normal day i'd say theres bigger privacy concerns when you have the council wanting to put micro chips in your wheelie bins and high powered microphones on street cameras.

 

[GReaper]

How can you expect privacy when you don't have end-to-end encryption?

If you don't want anybody else to know the contents of a message/conversation, the only way to guarantee that the only person able to view it is the recipient is by encrypting it. If you send a plain message to someone else then of course the entire thing can be recorded.

The majority of people don't care enough about their privacy to do anything about it though.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Yeah, known these things all the time.

But the matter of fact is, they can't do sh*t even if i texted "i have teh bomb in my pants" to osama bin laden. Why? 'cause they still need that lovely court order to obtain the info, and if they don't have the info, they don't get the order

 

[Gratscensi]

yeah, theres no ways around that one!

 

[Hawkwind]

Yeah, known these things all the time.

But the matter of fact is, they can't do sh*t even if i texted "i have teh bomb in my pants" to osama bin laden. Why? 'cause they still need that lovely court order to obtain the info, and if they don't have the info, they don't get the order

Take a tour around GCHQ in Cheltenham. Just about every phone call in Europe/Middle East is monitored and voice recognition systems check contents against keyworks.

Yes they need a court order for a Police tap but the security services like Mi5 and Mi6 operate under different rules for intelligence gathering.

 

[Bahumat]

someone may have already said it but i think the whole "we have all your texts/calls data" is known as 3rd Echelon?

Was in Splinter Cell so maybe its a different name but the principal of everything being recorded is still the same.

 

[Sparx]

if your not doing anythign illegal why would you care?

 

[Bahumat]

Does anyone remember the Mel Gibson film called Conspiracy Theory (i think?) and he says "In library's if you get books about bombs or terror they put a mark against your name, if you repeatedly loan these books the government get notified via their monitoring system".

Ofc this could be bullshit but its a clever simple thing you could do. If you monitored key words like that on text messages you could maybe read terrorist esque texts...

i have taken this with a pinch of salt too

 

[NikonL]

This is what i don't understand about people.. why do you care so much that the police and so on can access your texts/phone calls. I think you need a broader view on life so here it comes...

Spoiler

--- YOU ARE NOT IMPORTANT ---

The police dont give a damn that you occasionally phone up a guy called "Big Dave" and have him come over to give you some luvin'. You're not doing anything illegal so no-one pays any attention to you. Sure, it might seem like a huge terrible secret to you, but in the grand scheme of things its nothing.

Of course if you ARE doing something illegal, then to hell with you your opinion counts for jack shit and i really hope you get caught out by the same system you spend all your time complaining about.

Funny how its always the people who suspend the rights of others and think nothing of it (criminals, murderers etc) that complain the loudest when their rights are touched even slightly.