Text Much? It's not Wholly Private!

[MA-Caver]

Text Messaging Privacy
Tue Feb 5, 2008 5:16AM EST
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/22629/text-messaging-privacy
Text-messaging privacy is a hot topic once again, thanks to the latest text-messaging sex scandal involving Detroit's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty. The Detroit Free Press examined over 14,000 text messages obtained from Beatty's pager, publishing those that confirmed the two were having an affair and lied under oath about it.

We're reminded time and time again to refrain from sending personal emails using the office computer. Maybe they should've taken a few precautions with the office pager too. David Chamberlain, a wireless analyst for In-Stat, reminds us that users of any technology issued by an employer shouldn't expect to have any privacy. It's obvious the mayor's mistake was using a city-issued pager to exchange personal messages with his aide, but what about the rest of us? Should we have to worry about old texts resurfacing even when using our private lines?

According to a report by the Associated Press, Beatty's text messaging service was provided by SkyTel who has contracts exclusively with corporations and government agencies, and not surprisingly, stores all communication for legal reasons. It's not exactly clear how many years these text messages are archived for, but the Detroit Free Press says the messages obtained cover two months in 2002 and 2003.

As for the rest of us, AT&T says they keep messages for up to 72 hours, Sprint PCS for two weeks, and Verizon says texts don't stay on the network for a long period, adding "people can feel comfortable we're not storing information that can later be used against them." Oh, really? Then how is it that in many cases the police and even hackers have been able to obtain old text messages archived somewhere in a carrier's server?

The article goes on to offer tips on keeping your messages private. Not that any of YOU would be doing something you shouldn't be doing ... :uhyeah:

Beyond what the article offers do you have any other tips/hints/ideas on how to keep your messages just between you and whomever you send them to?

 

[Big Don]

my friends and i have our own "shorthand" that is just about indecipherable to anyone without our special twisted sense of humor. For instance Bob is never Bob, one time Bob might be "That guy" the next he may well be "oh greaaaat", etc. If anyone did decipher and read all my text messages, boy oh boy, would they be bored.

 

[Carol]

Notice how the carriers talk about how the data is "on the network." Meaning: on their servers.

I'm sure the messages don't stay on the server very long. All servers have finite disk space. Logs get overwritten with time and traffic.

However. once the data is captured and put in a log, the logs can get transferred off the network in to a storage area. This can be done for any number of legitimate business reasons...archiving operations, billing procedures or troubleshooting efforts that aren't directly related to the text in question but capture the data anyway.

The data can be around possibly forever.

Personally I find Verizon's quote to be a bit suspect. That doesn't sound like the kind of public statement that would come from a telecom company of their size and stature.

 

[Shicomm]

Just one word: Echelon ....

More info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON

Unless you encrypt or encode your stuff it's never private...
It's as simple as that.