Telcos cough mobe tracking habits The American Civil Liberties Union has compiled 381 information requests to establish who is slurping information from phone networks and what they're finding out. The initial data reveals huge disparities between operators when it comes to how much information is stored and what is made available to the authorities. AT&T, for …
However, its access by law enforcement (or any other government organization) should be tightly controlled by search warrants.
A kidnap victim can be found very quickly with this technology, but ordinary citizens should not feel they are being tracked, even anonymously. A persons data and / or information should have the same rights as the individual.
The typical response is "If you have done nothing wrong, why are you concerned." and this is not right. The question should be "If I have done nothing wrong, why am I being treated as if I did???"
US Gov currently taps into the ISP and Telco backbones to siphon this info directly. Very few people know just how invasive this process is currently. ...and that does not cover the covert stuff we know nothing about.
It'll only hit them when it's far, far too late to do anything about it. Privacy is such an abstract, nebulous, and oft-misapplied term that few can be bothered to care. Thinking about the implications makes people's heads hurt and makes them afraid of being seen as paranoid. So they won't.
The basic rule ought to be that you only keep what you strictly need and then work to reduce that even more, and then employ tricks like "fading" the data.
Keeping text messages? Whatever for? Once the message is delivered, the operator has zero interest in keeping anything, much like the post doesn't need to keep a copy of every letter they delivered to you. The fact that it's too easy to do doesn't change that there's neither need nor justification. So don't. Here is a wonderful opportunity for governments to step in and protect their citizens. But they don't, instead listening to plod clamouring for more grip on the populace's every move.
Keeping movement data? Whatever for? Of course it's useful "just in case", but privacy demands we don't bother with "just in case" unless, say, the punter asks that the company keeps the data for him to peruse. Or the plod, as long as they come with a search warrant, of course. But not before.
Orlowski..
"Amazon, like Phorm, is betting that you don't care enough about privacy to shop elsewhere. And from the gradual privacy ratchet, and the certain absence of opposition from rivals – nobody wants to poison the well – it may well succeed."
Ray
"The ACLU has shown what operators know, and is in the process of finding out with whom they share that data, but it's up to citizens to decide if they care enough to do anything about it."
Care or Know?
The whole thing is premised on the fact that 'people' do not have a clue as to what is going on. I'm sure that if they 'knew' they might 'care'. Those that do... do. Those that do not are clueless. These are the massive majority.
Please do not try to re-enforce the 'status quo' by suggesting it would be interrupted if people cared.
Something like that anyway.
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