John Aravosis over on AMERICAblog brings something rather alarming to our attention — and for once, it’s not the government. Well, not exactly anyway, as he notes below, they’ve known about this problem for some time now, but dealing with it simply isn’t a priority. Not when there’s pork to be ladled out and Americans to be spied upon.
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth
Anyone can buy a list of your incoming and outgoing phone calls, cell or land-line, for $110 online
And the best part? Congress and the Executive branch have known about this problem for half a year or more and no one did a damn thing to fix it.
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.
I have to say though that this doesn’t surprise me all that much. Furthermore, as far as I’m concerned, someone knowing that I called Round Table Pizza an alarming number of times last month (not really, haven’t gotten their fare in years now, as I prefer to make my own) isn’t the biggest danger to my privacy and identity security.
(More on the flip)
Back in the late 90s, I had a serious problem with a stalker, one who bragged he’d use my credit history records and get my address at any future date of his choice, then have me killed. (Cops at the time: “Call us when he actually does something.” Figures.) Even back then, for less than a hundred bucks, I could go to any one of several dozen Internet-based services, provide some minimal identifying information, and track down every other missing detail.
True story: My attorney and I fought for months with the Social Security Administration to get me a new number, because that was how my stalker was planning to find me, wherever I went. The SSA kept refusing, saying that they wouldn’t issue a new number unless I had proof not only that he already had misused my number and that all other law enforcement and prosecutorial remedies had been pursued and found ineffective. This was their rule at the time — even though their own regulations said they could issue a new number if there was reasonable belief that the existing one would be misused. In actual practice, they were very reluctant to act on this.
I had sworn affidavits up the wazoo, and copies of the cards and letters he’d sent me — but they weren’t considered proof enough of intent. For reasons I’m not sure of, in their own investigation, they wanted to know the SSN of my stalker. I didn’t have it. I did have his current address, and for what I believe was about $49, I got that SSN. When I showed them the printout, the supervisors at that SSA office were floored. They’d no idea this was even possible. Immediately, I received the necessary approvals and got my new number. Not long thereafter, the SSA changed their official policy to allow those in domestic abuse situations to get new SSNs (this had been under consideration for some time, but mine was one of a number of cases that tipped the balance).
Thing is, as far as I know, these services still exist. For a nominal fee plus a little known information about your target subject, and you can probably get everything else.
Privacy and identity security is an utter joke in this country. Nobody’s held accountable, there are no effective checks on digging up people’s private data. Is it any wonder the NSA’s been engaged in massive data mining? It’s too tempting to do anything else. If we ever get a reasonable and responsible government in office again, ensuring the privacy and data security of all Americans is imperative.
Hey Democrats! Here’s one of your winning issues in ’06: Propose a Constitutional Amendment to guarantee the privacy rights of all Americans. Let’s not depend on a Supreme Court that’s about to get hammered with yet another Bush-bot decide whether there’s an inherent right to privacy in that document. Let’s remove all ambiguity, and pass the Right to Privacy Amendment. The RPA will win you votes from both the right and the left, as well as the moderates.
Your phone records, for sale to anybody — dirt cheep! (sic)
John Aravosis over on AMERICAblog brings something rather alarming to our attention — and for once, it’s not the government. Well, not exactly anyway, as he notes below, they’ve known about this problem for some time now, but dealing with it simply isn’t a priority. Not when there’s pork to be ladled out and Americans to be spied upon.
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth
I have to say though that this doesn’t surprise me all that much. Furthermore, as far as I’m concerned, someone knowing that I called Round Table Pizza an alarming number of times last month (not really, haven’t gotten their fare in years now, as I prefer to make my own) isn’t the biggest danger to my privacy and identity security.
(More on the flip)
Back in the late 90s, I had a serious problem with a stalker, one who bragged he’d use my credit history records and get my address at any future date of his choice, then have me killed. (Cops at the time: “Call us when he actually does something.” Figures.) Even back then, for less than a hundred bucks, I could go to any one of several dozen Internet-based services, provide some minimal identifying information, and track down every other missing detail.
True story: My attorney and I fought for months with the Social Security Administration to get me a new number, because that was how my stalker was planning to find me, wherever I went. The SSA kept refusing, saying that they wouldn’t issue a new number unless I had proof not only that he already had misused my number and that all other law enforcement and prosecutorial remedies had been pursued and found ineffective. This was their rule at the time — even though their own regulations said they could issue a new number if there was reasonable belief that the existing one would be misused. In actual practice, they were very reluctant to act on this.
I had sworn affidavits up the wazoo, and copies of the cards and letters he’d sent me — but they weren’t considered proof enough of intent. For reasons I’m not sure of, in their own investigation, they wanted to know the SSN of my stalker. I didn’t have it. I did have his current address, and for what I believe was about $49, I got that SSN. When I showed them the printout, the supervisors at that SSA office were floored. They’d no idea this was even possible. Immediately, I received the necessary approvals and got my new number. Not long thereafter, the SSA changed their official policy to allow those in domestic abuse situations to get new SSNs (this had been under consideration for some time, but mine was one of a number of cases that tipped the balance).
Thing is, as far as I know, these services still exist. For a nominal fee plus a little known information about your target subject, and you can probably get everything else.
Privacy and identity security is an utter joke in this country. Nobody’s held accountable, there are no effective checks on digging up people’s private data. Is it any wonder the NSA’s been engaged in massive data mining? It’s too tempting to do anything else. If we ever get a reasonable and responsible government in office again, ensuring the privacy and data security of all Americans is imperative.
Hey Democrats! Here’s one of your winning issues in ’06: Propose a Constitutional Amendment to guarantee the privacy rights of all Americans. Let’s not depend on a Supreme Court that’s about to get hammered with yet another Bush-bot decide whether there’s an inherent right to privacy in that document. Let’s remove all ambiguity, and pass the Right to Privacy Amendment. The RPA will win you votes from both the right and the left, as well as the moderates.
About Becca
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