"When you signed
up for cellphone service, I bet you didn’t expect that your exact
location could be sold to anyone for a few hundred dollars. The truth
is, your wireless carrier tracks you everywhere you go, whether you like
it or not. When used appropriately, this tracking shouldn’t be a
problem: location information allows emergency services to find you when
you need them most.
"But wireless
carriers have been selling our data in ways that allows it to be resold
for potentially dangerous purposes. For instance, stalkers and abusive
domestic partners have used location data to track, threaten and attack
victims. This industrywide practice facilitates 'pay to track' schemes
that appear to violate the law and Federal Communications Commission
rules.
"Companies are collecting and
profiting from our private data in hidden ways that leave us vulnerable.
As you carry your phone, your wireless carrier records its location so
calls and texts can reach you. And you can't opt out of sharing location
data with your carrier, as you can with a mobile application. Your
carrier needs this data to deliver service. But, according to recent
news reports, this real-time phone location data has long been available
to entities beyond your wireless carrier, for a price. In one alarming example,
reported by Vice, a bounty hunter was able to pay to track a user’s
location on a map accurate to within a few feet. In another case, a sheriff in Missouri used location data provided by carriers to inappropriately track a judge.
"In other words, an ability that seems to come right out of a spy movie
is now apparently available to just about anybody with your phone number
and some cash. The pay-to-track industry has grown in the shadows,
outside of the public eye and away from the watch of regulators."
To read Starks' entire article, click HERE.
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