Friday, September 30, 2011
What your mobile phone will reveal
The following information comes from a Department of Justice document name “Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers,” and is marked “Law Enforcement Use Only.” Here’s what they prefer the public not know:
Verizon keeps a list of everyone you’ve exchanged text messages with for the past year. Sprint keeps the list for 18 months, T-Mobile for up to five years, and it’s seven years for AT&T. That makes Verizon appear to have the most privacy-friendly policy, right? Not quite—Verizon retains the actual contents of text messages for five days.
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TRANSPORTATION STUDIES: Yet another reason to register your vehicles with a LLC.
ReplyDeleteSomeone I know well just received in the mail a POSTCARD (very public!) from the Lake Tahoe Transportation Study addressed to their full legal name and the street address (and PO Box) they used to register one particular vehicle. Yes, I am looking at the postcard as I type this... It reads,
"Dear Traveler,
The Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization (TMPO) is studying the travel behavior of residents and visitors to the Lake Tahoe region. The results will help us predict future travel patterns and prioritize transportation improvements in the area. Resource Systems Group, Inc. and Parsons Brinkerhoff are conducting this study on behalf of the TMPO.
You have been invited to participate because a vehicle registered to your address traveled in or through the Lake Tahoe region on Friday, August 19.2011. We would like to ask you a brief series of questions about your trip on that day. Please go to the website below and enter your password. Upon completing the short, 5 minute survey, you will be entered into a drawing for one $1,000 grand prize and forty $100 second prizes."
They then list the website and the password, and have a statement about if you would prefer to participate via telephone and give a telephone number.
This is not VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION. They collected data on my friend as they were driving through the area without their permission or consent and then entered my friend's personal data into 2 corporate databases.
I have of course advised my friend to put all vehicles into an LLC, but it is too late for that one occurrence. I wonder how many "transportation studies" are being done throughout the USA this year, and how they will use the data?
I have also advised my friend to contact an attorney or perhaps the ACLU to sue for loss of privacy in the hopes of stopping this type of nasty behavior.
Does anyone have any input or advise on how to proceed with something like this?
And please pass the word - if you are traveling through California, in particular the Lake Tahoe region... you will be survielled and will be getting a very public postcard with your full name (first, middle and last> that go with vehicle registration along with whatever street address and PO Box you use.
My mom just got one in the mail and she gave them hell as she felt her privacy violated. she told them what if her or her husband did not want the other to know they were up staying in a time share in Tahoe this could ruin somebody's marriage etc.
ReplyDeleteI guess the govt is just testing the waters. Where are they taking the pictures, that is the question. Last year they were burying some sort of line in the middle of the highways around here, there was nothing in the paper about it either.
ReplyDeleteLines being buried in the highway are often innocuous. Almost all of the time they are sensors that detect (and count) the number of vehicles that travel over them and in conjunction with other sensor on the same stretch of road can determine average speeds. The sensors cannot identify the individual cars. The data is used to determine maintenance schedules, percentage of highways funds allocated and congestion. It is also usual for alerts to be sent out if traffic slows suddenly. I would also guess that if average speeds are well above posted limits that traffic enforcement may be sent to the area.
ReplyDeleteAbout the first post, is the Lake Tahoe Transportation Study real? It has the smell of a fishing expedition. It's has been reported elsewhere in these blogs that states are selling motor vehicle information for commercial purposes.