# Are Your Cell Phone Calls Private? No, they're not.



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.





> anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way.
> On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
> 
> BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
> ...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

I've assumed for years that anything that is broadcast via airwaves is being intercepted by somebody. And people laugh at my tin foil hat.


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

trh said:


> I've assumed for years that anything that is broadcast via airwaves is being intercepted by somebody. And people laugh at my tin foil hat.


Where did you get your first tin foil hat? I got mind at Walmart.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

For years I've assumed that all my electronic communications were either being monitored by an automated program such as Echelon or Rendition, either in real time or cached for future review. Further, I've considered that certain key words, whether spoken or transmitted, such as "bomb", "gun", or "attack", as well as hundreds of other words would be flagged for human review. Whether on a cell, landline or typed, I consider all my communications to be subject to govt and or private monitoring. Now where is my tinfoil hat?


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## PCampbell (Nov 18, 2006)

Nick said:


> For years I've assumed that all my electronic communications were either being monitored by an automated program such as Echelon or Rendition, either in real time or cached for future review. Further, I've considered that certain key words, whether spoken or transmitted, such as "bomb", "gun", or "attack", as well as hundreds of other words would be flagged for human review. Whether on a cell, landline or typed, I consider all my communications to be subject to govt and or private monitoring. Now where is my tinfoil hat?


Like this post.


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## gov (Jan 11, 2013)

Seems like the folks so inclined to overwhelm the system could organize themselves somewhat and just start using words on the list as synonyms for more prosaic activities. One might also speculate a second generation attempt at overwhelming the system, and provoking the guv'mint into investigating itself, would be to sprinkle the conversations already spiced up with the 'words' from the list with the names of congress critters, administrators, and bureaucrats.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

yosoyellobo said:


> Where did you get your first tin foil hat? I got mind at Walmart.


Walmart? Surely you jest. Not since they started using RFID chips have I been in a Walmart. :rolling:


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

^Are those Bar-B-Que or Salt & Vinegar?


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

trh said:


> Walmart? Surely you jest. Not since they started using RFID chips have I been in a Walmart. :rolling:


I actually got my first tin foil hat at the old Five and Dime but was a shame to say so.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Nick said:


> For years I've assumed that all my electronic communications were either being monitored by an automated program such as Echelon or Rendition, either in real time or cached for future review. Further, I've considered that certain key words, whether spoken or transmitted, such as "bomb", "gun", or "attack", as well as hundreds of other words would be flagged for human review. Whether on a cell, landline or typed, I consider all my communications to be subject to govt and or private monitoring. Now where is my tinfoil hat?


Yep, but the tinfoil hats I used to wear act like an antenna which I fear would lead to worse WiFi Side Effects. So I use a lead lined hat available from these folks:


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

yosoyellobo said:


> Where did you get your first tin foil hat? I got mind at Walmart.


Corner Ben Franklin 5 & 10 cent store


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Woolworth's Five-n-Dime didn't carry them in my town, so we had to make our own, unfortunately out of aluminum foil.....


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## kc1ih (May 22, 2004)

It used to be worse, you could hear cell phone calls on a common Radio Shack or Bearcat scanner. Even after it was outlawed it was common knowledge which diode to cut to enable the cell-phone frequencies. After it all went digital it requires more expertise but I'm sure it can still be done.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

Laxguy said:


> Woolworth's Five-n-Dime didn't carry them in my town, so we had to make our own, unfortunately out of aluminum foil.....


Only the ones you make yourself are trustworthy, anyway.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

It used to be worse, you could hear cell phone calls on a common Radio Shack or Bearcat scanner. Even after it was outlawed it was common knowledge which diode to cut to enable the cell-phone frequencies. After it all went digital it requires more expertise but I'm sure it can still be done.


Go back far enough, you might have a neighbor listening on the party line, land line.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

dpeters11 said:


> Go back far enough, you might have a neighbor listening on the party line, land line.


Had 4 other families on the original party line, was interesting sometimes


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

kc1ih said:


> It used to be worse, you could hear cell phone calls on a common Radio Shack or Bearcat scanner.


We used to do that on the way to NASCAR races. We would listen to cell conversations on the scanner that I would use at the track. Of course back then most cell phones were attached to cars.


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