[Gondring]

I was unaware that carriers were providing that information to the government and third parties without my consent. Thank you for letting us know that is already going on....or is it not, and you're missing some of the story?

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>I was unaware that carriers were providing that information to the government and third parties without my consent. <<<

They're not. And the technology in the original article in the post won't either.

Sheesh. Some people will buy into any paranoid drivel that gets posted around here.

[DBrow]

without my consent.

It's in your contract with them that they won't?

I could find nothing in my cell phone contract (that I had to agree to if I wanted a cell phone) that said they would not send info to third parties.

There were several clauses that said that they could and would send information to third parties subject to the privacy agreement, which had some clauses about not using personal information for "commercial uses" that I took to mean spam and junk mail and certain types of marketing.

For all you people who don't like the idea of using cell data for traffic had better see just what's in your contracts. You may wish to switch carriers or pressure your current carrier to modify the useage contracts, and privacy agreements. If you have a cell, you probably had to agree to contractual details to get it.

I think the "disposable" pay-as-you-go phones may be different.

[DBrow]

Here is a clip from a cell provider about privacy. It says they won't share personal information, but if they strip the personal information from their datastream, it's not personal- it's just a cell ID ping.

There really is nothing personal about a cell ping itself, it's the carrier database that links it to who you are.

This is nothing like the British programme to use a computer camera on your auto license tag to track your car- it uses a big linked database and an OCR to read your plate and record the time.

Your Privacy

We have a duty under federal law to protect the confidentiality of information about the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, and amount of your use of our service, together with similar information on your bills. (This doesn't include your name, address, and wireless phone number.)

Except as provided in this agreement, we won't intentionally share personal information about you without your permission. We may use and share information about you:

(a) so we can provide our goods or services;

(b) so others can provide goods or services to us, or to you on our behalf;

(c) so we or our affiliates can communicate with you about goods or services related to the ones you already receive (although you can call us any time if you don't want us to do this);

(d) to protect ourselves; or

(e) as required by law, legal process, or exigent circumstances.

In addition, you've authorized us to investigate your credit history at any time and to share credit information about you with credit reporting agencies. If you ask, we'll tell you the name and address of any credit agency that gives us a credit report about you.

It's illegal for unauthorized people to intercept your calls, but such interceptions can occur. For training or quality assurance, we may also monitor or record our calls with you.