How Private Do You Believe Your Phone Calls to Be?

This came in my inbox today from my high school Marine Biology Teacher.
He has provided a link to back up the info which I will also share with you.
It has to make you wonder about this rush to digital, as well as our acceptance of such invasive things that we just willing subscribe to just like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
Here is his email...

" I forgot to mention in my prior e-mail that cell phones are really easy to eavesdrop on.
I'd assume all phone conversations lack security, if I were you.

On a related subject, did you know that newer models of cell phones can still track you by signal even when your phone is off ?
Allegedly, this is for safety in case you've been injured or whatnot.

The public is largely unaware of this.

The lithium battery that recalls your directory numbers, etc. also functions to power a signal from your phone even when the main phone system has been turned off.

If someone knows your number and wants to find you badly enough, they can get within about 5-10 meters of your location, assuming the phone is on you (info. on this is sketchy, of course). You can bet covert services and law enforcement use this feature.

Old analog phones (like the 3 watt bag phone I used until the public was denied analog-only service by the FCC's "Analog Sunset" rule, couldn't be tracked that way...
Makes you wonder why we were knocked off analog-only service doesn't it?
The analog towers are still out there and functioning (the Forest Service still uses them for remote communication in areas without digital towers and they can serve as a default system for some cell phones that can operate at 1/8 to 1/16 watt analog in the absence of digital towers).

I can't get my 3 watt phone that I kept on a very, very old contract, to work though, because the carriers cannot host my phone number anymore.
Maybe phones like mine were used by too many drug runners or no one wants me to be able to talk on a cell line without the ability to track my exact location?
A tech-weenie at one of the big service providers said the latter was the reason, otherwise, they could make my number work just like it used to.
This is an administrative issue, not a change in technology, though those with analog phones were all told our old phones were "no longer supported" and we had to "upgrade."
The powerful home alarm industry and On Star car system that used analog even sued to keep their access, but it was denied. Interesting, eh?

My old 3-watt analog bag phone could use towers to punch all the way across the Mojave to Baker and beyond from off-road areas that had no near analog or digital towers. I could make phone calls out there. That phone got us out of trouble once when our 4-Runner wouldn't start (bad solenoid) in the middle of nowhere near Ylano. I really miss that thing.

Anyway, there's no such thing as an anonymous cell phone call, at least not on your own phone.
Authorities (and who knows who else) can not only find you physically, they can use your signal to find out your name and require your service provider to barf up your land line number, home address, employer, account info., even SS#, and anything else you put on your contract application to get your cell phone service.

If you want to block the signal between your phone and cell towers when your phone is off, you've got to either take out the lithium battery (a hassle that might also erase some of your stored data),
OR,
you can go low-tech and cover your phone with a layer or two of heavy tin foil.
(I know I will catch heat over this one)
One of those lead lined little pouches used in x-ray rooms to protect film and x-ray sensitive parts also works real well, but those are heavy.

Mostly, this is stuff to simply be aware of... Read the following about department stores tracking you in malls by your cell phone, even when it is off.
First, you're on all their little hidden cameras (you can't blow your nose without someone catching it from three angles on color cameras and probably infrared)... now they can track exactly where you go in the mall and how long you stay there for marketing purposes.
If stores can do this, what do you think law enforcement and the secret services here and abroad can do?
London Times Online"

Be sure to read the last paragraph


For more read here and Here