Are Your Private Cell Phone Records Safe?

Public records have always been a strong point of contention between those who believe in public access and privacy. Indeed, the gray area of this issue is a bit difficult to maneuver that one has to questions one's motives in wanting to access public records. When is right to publish information such as cell phone records? Should access to such public records be tempered with tight rules?

One glaring example is this prank by John Hargrave where he demonstrates how he got personal information of Verizon's CEO through his prank showing cell phone records could be easily accessed. The prank starts with Hargrave getting information about Verizon's CEO Ivan Seidenberg through one of those 'free cell phone records' sites. Within a couple of minutes, Hargrave got the CEO's home adress, transferred the information on his GPS system, and plotted Point A to Point B. Clearly, if you can get this information on a person who holds one of the highest positions in a major cell phone provider then you could practically look for anyone with the use of a couple of free phone records sites.

What this also shows is that no information is private at all. Your cell phone records, your home adress, and even phone number could easily be purchased by someone. Some, like the Washington Post, say that these records and information are leaked by cell phone carriers themselves and are sold to websites that offer the information to anyone who signs up with their site. What this does is open up an avenue where no information is sacred and anyone could just show up at your home or call you up in the middle of the night. Even options such as signing up for the 'do not call' list or deciding to have an unlisted number appear to be flimsy measures on protecting a client's privacy.

Hargrave's prank may be called juvenille or inane by some but one cannot ignore what this prank has uncovered. Clearly, information about you is for sale and is available to anyone who is willing to spend minutes tracking you down. If a common mischief maker could easily get the ad dress of a high-ranking businessman, imagine how easy it is to track everyone else down. Clearly, phone records and personal information is not safe: it is actually treated like pieces of information that could be sold to anyone who is willing to pay the small price for such private facts about a person.