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[HardOCP] US Telcos Are Selling Non-Anonymized Access to Consumer Telephone Data

2K views 24 replies 21 participants last post by  doritos93 
#1 ·
Quote:
Telcos provide API access to your phone's location, along with your name and address, writes Philip Neutstrom. With two links, to danalinc.com and payfone.com, he shows that these sites can access this data when your phone connects. The pages are demos for the API and serve some of the data provided back to the visitor.
Quote:
In 2003, news came to light that AT&T was providing the DEA and other law enforcement agencies with no-court-warrant-required access to real time cell phone metadata. This was a pretty big deal at the time. But what these services show us is even more alarming: US telcos appear to be selling direct, non-anonymized, real-time access to consumer telephone data to third party services -- not just federal law enforcement officials -- who are then selling access to that data.
Source.
 
#2 ·
between everyones identity being stolen, now our real time locations are being compromised..... what went wrong?
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cerberus View Post

between everyones identity being stolen, now our real time locations are being compromised..... what went wrong?
Capitalism, no privacy, that's USA for ya. All the companies sell everything plus who doesn't want to pay them steals it from them.
 
#6 ·
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Originally Posted by Mrip541 View Post

This is freaky but what really kills me is that 22 hours after your post, only 4 people bothered to reply. No one even cares. What the hell is happening?!
I don't believe that is the case at all. This is obviously an extremely important topic.

It's just... I've seen a lot of threads similar to this one lately, and unfortunately, they always seem to devolve in to the same circular arguments that we see over and over again.

I, like many others, don't have a solution for this problem, and feel to keep quiet, rather than attempt to get caught up in the mindless bickering.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrip541 View Post

This is freaky but what really kills me is that 22 hours after your post, only 4 people bothered to reply. No one even cares. What the hell is happening?!
Most people aren't intelligent enough to figure out what it all really means. They don't understand the depth of psychological investigatory work that can be done by AI; they perceive no threat to self, as related to the systemic societal threat. They don't even know how much data is being collected, what type of data, how each type of data relates to the next, or how long the data can be retained.

People need to be impacted directly, in order to begin perceiving a threat -- but for this, the impact will always be indirect. You need to have a bit of an abnormal capacity for malevolence to even conceive of what's possible with big data in a society that forfeits it's own privacy for cheaper goods/services.. let alone the technical background you need. There's no doubt in my mind that there are already many people in the industry with the talent, the capacity for malevolence, and most importantly the motivation to follow through.
 
#11 ·
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Originally Posted by DIYDeath View Post

Two words for you: corporate personhood.
FTFY
 
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#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrip541 View Post

This is freaky but what really kills me is that 22 hours after your post, only 4 people bothered to reply. No one even cares. What the hell is happening?!
My question is - what do you expect in the replies?

Your own reply only states that others haven't.

If there's something to share, share it - otherwise its likely that everyone else is in the same boat.
 
#14 ·
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Originally Posted by Simmons572 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrip541 View Post

This is freaky but what really kills me is that 22 hours after your post, only 4 people bothered to reply. No one even cares. What the hell is happening?!
I don't believe that is the case at all. This is obviously an extremely important topic.

It's just... I've seen a lot of threads similar to this one lately, and unfortunately, they always seem to devolve in to the same circular arguments that we see over and over again.

I, like many others, don't have a solution for this problem, and feel to keep quiet, rather than attempt to get caught up in the mindless bickering.
I'll second that.

Yeah, not much to do here. Just watch yourself I guess and keep reporting, rally around an organization who has a gameplan to address this. AKA we should be using the legislative branch in theory to advocate policies we the people want.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrip541 View Post

This is freaky but what really kills me is that 22 hours after your post, only 4 people bothered to reply. No one even cares. What the hell is happening?!
Speaking for myself: What prevents my commentary on these issues is fear of being misunderstood and attacked, not a lack of caring about such things.
Some of us just keep to ourselves on such issues since it's antithetical to many's worldview (especially in the med, sci, & tech communities) to talk about the how's and why's we're now here. Ends up being more trouble than it's worth.

Regardless, I'm happy to see just how wrong things are brought into the light for as many to see as possible.
 
#17 ·
In the past, when such topic was discussed (say, M$ and their data collection), most people have been like "I have nothing to hide".
I could easily sort myself to that group, because in theory, I really do have nothing serious to hide.
But I still don't want any sort of data shared anywhere else besides my virtual target.
But every time I get to read such "news", I am getting more and more annoyed
angrysmiley.gif


Because even if we would want to get some action against this practice, there will be prevalent mass of "nothing to hide" people opposing "nothing to hide and still don't want to share anything" people.

By the way, let me get this straight - every time somebody transferred data over AT&T network, it was mined for meta data and then sold somewhere else ?
Is it like that if I ever want to get at least some level of privacy, I need to use heavily encrypted end-to-end VPN ?
 
#18 ·
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Originally Posted by DesertRat View Post

Because even if we would want to get some action against this practice, there will be prevalent mass of "nothing to hide" people opposing "nothing to hide and still don't want to share anything" people.
Welcome to the frustration of society.
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Is it like that if I ever want to get at least some level of privacy, I need to use heavily encrypted end-to-end VPN ?
Still have to trust your VPN provider. Encryption though - that's probably the answer. We've got too much power and too little responsibility I'm afraid.
 
#19 ·
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Originally Posted by BobiBolivia View Post

In the past, when such topic was discussed (say, M$ and their data collection), most people have been like "I have nothing to hide".
I could easily sort myself to that group, because in theory, I really do have nothing serious to hide.
Not responding to you in particular, but the general idea of 'nothing to hide'.

People have plenty of stuff to hide, and rightly so. Private conversations, their nudity, medical conditions or data that imply them (like location data to a psychiatrist office), pieces of their history likely to be used as security questions for account recovery, and anything else generally thought of as private. Not only is it invasive to collect this data, we can't even trust companies who don't intend to share it to keep it safe from being stolen.

The only way to keep anything private/secret is to never share or document it in the first place.
 
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#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobiBolivia View Post

In the past, when such topic was discussed (say, M$ and their data collection), most people have been like "I have nothing to hide".
I could easily sort myself to that group, because in theory, I really do have nothing serious to hide.
But I still don't want any sort of data shared anywhere else besides my virtual target.
But every time I get to read such "news", I am getting more and more annoyed
angrysmiley.gif


Because even if we would want to get some action against this practice, there will be prevalent mass of "nothing to hide" people opposing "nothing to hide and still don't want to share anything" people.

By the way, let me get this straight - every time somebody transferred data over AT&T network, it was mined for meta data and then sold somewhere else ?
Is it like that if I ever want to get at least some level of privacy, I need to use heavily encrypted end-to-end VPN ?
And still the "nothing to hide" argument is one of the most narrow minded and egoistical ones to make in this context. (Not directed at you personally, but at the argument that so many still try to make)

In every society there are people who have something to hide for good reason, like f.e. lawyers, journalists, doctors etc.
The consequences on society of the "nothing to hide" mindset are not entirely foreseeable and still we head into it blindly without even thinking about it.

Taking our freedom back will be much harder than trying to preserve what's left of it.
 
#21 ·
The golden chains of economic slavery. Keep 'em just smart enough to be useful, but dumb enough not to escape.

"Did you see Daryl? He got that new iphone golden chain."
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmons572 View Post

I don't believe that is the case at all. This is obviously an extremely important topic.

It's just... I've seen a lot of threads similar to this one lately, and unfortunately, they always seem to devolve in to the same circular arguments that we see over and over again.

I, like many others, don't have a solution for this problem, and feel to keep quiet, rather than attempt to get caught up in the mindless bickering.
I don't think anyone is expecting a solution, is that the only time you feel like you should stand up and voice your opinion? When you have a solution? Why is that?

Imo it's obvious why there's such little activity here. OCN is no longer the place for this kind of discussion. There's a reason why vega and video game threads blow up instantaneously

That's what OCN users want to discuss

It's like going to basketball forums and asking why people aren't discussing politics
 
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