T-Mobile Follows Cingular in Attempt to Stop Sale of Calling History

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=1960' target='_blank'>http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=1960</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Following the example set by rival company Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile has filed suit against Locatecell.com under Washington State criminal profiteering laws. The suit, filed in the King County, Washington, Superior Court, seeks an injunction to stop Locatecell.com, as well as related individuals and companies, from engaging in the selling of individual's call records which T-Mobile alleges it has obtained illegally."</i><br /><br />We've talked about this in the past. Things change pretty quick, because now we have suits filed by multiple carriers in an attempt to help protect your privacy - as they should. But my question is; How did these guys get the call history information anyway? Are these guys just grabbing openly available information and selling it, or are they hacking into the carriers system and stealing your data? Curious minds want to know!

[possmann]

You know I wonder if I had a land line number - if marketing companies can also buy that same information from the land line companies regarding calling history.

Personally this is an invansion of privacy - I paid for that service and those records. If the company that I have a contract with deems that they are going to sell those records than I better well get a huge frickin' discount on the remainder of my bills to offset the invasion of incoming marketing phone calls.

That or at least post the calling habits of all the major senior executives of that company so we can all view what they are doing - seeing that they are so firec up about making these records "accessible" for a fee... Let them get bombarded with marketing calls too

:snipersmile:

[lurch]

I just heard something on TV recently that said the way "they" get your records is to text message/email the system impersonating your cell phone as the source, and they request (via the automatic system) a copy of your records. Not sure on any specifics though, or even if that's true (but it is plausable).

Sounds similar to the way people can listen to your voicemail.