[TheForge] Plaxo????

[James Binnion]

>  I was flabbergasted
> to find out recently that  as long as you have your cell phone  
> turned on
> someone, anywhere, with the right  software, could track every call  
> you made
> and every call you received and listen  and record every spoken  
> work. They
> could also listen in to any conversations  within a couple feet of  
> that phone
> that was on...but not connected to anyone.  Scary!

Yes you can with the right equipment, software and access to the cell  
phone network listen to a specific phone. Just like the land line  
system. Nothing new here. The bit about listening in to a conversation  
within a few feet of the phone with it powered on but no call in  
progress is BS. Cellphones do everything they can to preserve battery  
life so all signal processing circuits are powered off when it is in  
standby mode i.e. no call in progress. Otherwise the battery would  
last about 30 minutes.

This is nothing new. The Feds have been able to do this forever with  
any kind of phone. With the proper receiver you can listen on the  
radio transmissions to and from a cell tower but you cannot follow a  
specific phone without access to the cell provider network. This kind  
of snooping can be done but the tools and access are not something  
your average punk will have . Governments and professional snoopers  
are a different story but they have always done this kind of thing. If  
you really don't want someone to be able to listen to your calls then  
invest in encryption but short of that if someone really wants to  
listen to your calls land line or cell it is not that hard to do and  
never has been.


James Binnion
jbin at well.com