Monday, January 30, 2006

Mobile and Ubiquitous Paranoia

I was teaching my class about interception and surveillance last week and reminded them that you don't need to be government or Echelon or a spook to spy on someone these days: their never-without-it mobile phone is a portable locational bug aiting to happen. And lo and behold, in Saturday's Guardian is a convenient explanation on how you can use a mobile to stalk your chosen prey (EDIT: And here;'s a previous piece that's even better):

"Here is how it works. You register on the site, pay a few quid, type in the phone number of the person you want to track, and then the system sends them a text message. All you need to do is surreptitiously get access to your target’s mobile phone, without their knowledge, for just five minutes: long enough to receive that text message, reply with the word LOCATE, and delete two text messages that arrive immediately, warning them they are being tracked. You can stalk them for a couple of days, find out if they really are where they say they are, work out who they are with, perhaps find out if they’re having an affair, then delete them off the system. They will never be any the wiser."

Thanks To Ray Corrigan at http://b2fxxx.blogspot.com/2006/01/mobile-phone-stalking-made-easy.html .

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