Protect Your Cell Phone Privacy

The most Invasive form of Cell Phone Privacy abuse has been the selling of your private cell phone records.  Legislators and Cell Phone companies have been trying to crack down on the problem.

If you are a victim of any form of stalking, going through divorce proceedings, or generally concerned about your privacy, you can take the following steps to reduce your risk.  

• Contact your cell phone carrier and request that call details not appear on your bills.
  
• Request a password on your cell phone account. When selecting a password, make it a unique password that has nothing to do with your birthdate or other information.  Write down your passwords and keep them in a safe if possible.
  
• Instruct the phone carrier not to provide any form of password reminders. If you forget your password, you will just need to visit a local store to show identification before you can access your account.
  
• Either set up your online access or instruct the carrier to eliminate it from your account.  Apparently one way people gain access to your account is by setting up your online access using their email address.  In other words, if you don't set it up yourself someone else can!

Please note that these tips will help to deter unscrupulous people from obtaining your records through commercial vendors. But these tips will not prevent disclosure of information if a court order is obtained.  It simply helps prevent unauthorized abuse of your information.

Here are a couple news articles outlining the Cell Phone records problem:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-privacy05.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701862.html

Online Companies Involved With Selling Cellphone Records:

http://www.backgroundsearcher.us/

http://www.thespystore.com/cellphonerecords.htm

http://www.myprivate-investigator.com/phone_records.htm

Related Cell Phone Topics:

Wipe Your Cell Phone's Memory Before Disgarding or Giving It Away.

Can People Track Your Location Through Your Cell Phone?