[109306] in Cypherpunks
RE: Cellular Phone Anonymity/Privacy (was Israli cellphone)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (spill@cyberdude.com)
Wed Mar 17 17:42:40 1999
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 17:11:12 -0500
From: spill@cyberdude.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <cypherpunks@openpgp.net>
Reply-To: spill@cyberdude.com
According to a friend I have working here in Australia
for a phone company, we have a federal law requiring
the location of our telephones to be recorded every couple
of minutes and then stored for a minimum of seven years.
If the phone companies don't do this, they loose their
operating license.
All of this information also has to be kept centrally, which
keeps the IT departments of the phone companies busy supporting
these data bases.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
> [mailto:owner-cypherpunks@Algebra.COM]On Behalf Of Jim Burnes
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 1999 5:51 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Cellular Phone Anonymity/Privacy (was Israli cellphone)
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> X-Loop: openpgp.net
> From: owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
> [mailto:owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net]On Behalf Of William H. Geiger
> III
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 12:51 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Israel Cell Phones
>
> W Geiger says:
>
> >Once again the socialist don't get it (FYI Israel is a
> *very* socialist
> >country). :(
>
> >If you don't like the actions of Company X, the solution is not more
> >government regulation, the solution is to stop using Company
> X's products.
> >The pocketbook is far more powerfull than any government
> action. If the
> >million or so cell phone users all went and turned in their
> phones and
> >canceled their service things would change very fast.
>
> True. I think it would behoove the users to sue the cell
> phone providers
> for some sort of "invasion of privacy". Do the year-long
> cellular contracts
> stipulate that "big-brother inside" is part of the contract.
> I think not.
>
> What would happen if the phone company put bugs inside your
> house every
> time they did an install. When you find out are you allowed to change
> phone companies? No -- you sue the bastards.
>
> If the cell companies were really interested in locating you
> in an emergency
> they would disable the tracking unless you pressed 911. Maybe what we
> need is cell phone pseudonyms. The service charges would be settled
> cryptographically. Now *there* is an e-cash application. Store some
> creds on your cellphone. You give them e-cash tokens every n-minutes
> to keep the call going. Maybe you could just buy a chunk of air time
> with e-cash tokens, like gassing up your car. The more air time you
> buy, the cheaper it is -- and no way to link you directly
> with the phone.
>
> Of course they can always track who you call. They can listen in on
> the conversation. Thats what gpg-phone is for. As far as anonymity
> with the person your dialing I'm not sure.
>
> Maybe Lucky can comment. I know he had a Nokia Project going a while
> ago. Certainly nothing seems to be no new ideas under the cryto sun.
>
> jim
>
>
>
>
>
>
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