Your Cell Phone Overhears All Your Conversations
By now most seasoned Internet surfers realize that wherever they go they leave their electronic footprints. They may feel much more comfortable communicating with a close friend via a cell phone. However as John Whitehead points out Big Brother Is Listening to Your Cell Phone Calls. Indeed it would appear that Big Brother would like to listen much more.
Moreover, the FBI and other government agencies are demanding greater legal authority to be able to force companies–especially cell phone companies–to turn over customer information. “They have pushed for an aggressive interpretation of the statute that would allow it to monitor certain Internet content without a warrant and to collect tracking information about the physical locations of cell phone users,” the ACLU reports, “turning cell phones into what, for all practical purposes, are location tracking bugs.”
Now the Bush Administration is prodding Congress to grant retroactive legal immunity to the telecommunications companies that have allowed government agents access to their customers’ private phone call data. If Congress passes such a law, it would put an end to the dozens of lawsuits that have already been filed against phone companies alleged to have violated federal privacy laws by handing over customer data to the government. It would also put an end to any pretense that our government has our best interests at heart.
Some people seem to value their privacy less. Could The Pudding be for you? The Pudding is a cell phone application, which is Internet based. With The Pudding you can make free, unlimited calls to any phone in the U.S. and Canada from your web browser. No downloads are necessary. When talking via The Pudding, voice recognition software will listen to your conversation and display web pages, news, ads and images related to your conversation.
The Pudding is in Beta trials at the moment and seems to be a runaway success. If you wish to do such a trial, you will be informed at sometime down the road when you can be added to the trial. Apparently just getting a free service is enough for some people to accept the loss of privacy. Even more intrusively, the ads they will be shown will be relevant to the topic they are discussing. That’s a somewhat scary notion.
Related: Your Cell Phone Will Be Listening to Your Conversations
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BPWrap
August 15th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
This would only be concerning to people who have something to hide. If you do have something to hide, try carrier pigeon.
LOL
December 28th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Whether you have something to hide or not, some things are just personal and not appropriate for eavesdroppers.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:38 am
basically everyone should encrypt there phonecalls, but as some people above me allready said, if you dont have anything to hide whats the problem!!