Product: Cell Phone: Accessory
self-tapping mobile phone   (+2)  [vote for, against]
Saves time

Opt-out scheme whereby you can tick boxes to select which media company you don't want to have automatically forwarded a copy of all your voicemail and/or other messages..
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 15 2011

How Did News of the World Hack Victims' Cell Phones? http://www.pcmag.co...2817,2388157,00.asp
[Wrongfellow, Jul 16 2011]

Is this scheme legal in the USA? http://en.wikipedia...Law_Enforcement_Act
[mouseposture, Jul 16 2011]

I'm sure they're within the letter of their EULA: "we won't send your mail to a 3rd party" doesn't mean "we won't analyse the hell out of your mail and send the results of *that* to a third party".
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 15 2011


//The only way...//

That I do not believe. I have no idea how hone phacking works, but I am pretty sure it can beat simple precautions. Phone cloning was big news a few years ago - surely it's still possible. Presumably, a cloned phone can access your texts and voicemail as easily as the legitimate owner.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 15 2011


I was just trying to save NewsCorp the man-hours
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 15 2011


Forward text messages, does that mean when you send me a text I have the option of sending it to other people? Like in forward this to x? My phone ( galaxy s samsung) does that as a standard function. just click twice and it goes to the number of my choice.
-- zeno, Jul 16 2011


Idea here seems lame. My phone will not send anything unless I tell it to, is this a rant of sorts?
-- zeno, Jul 16 2011


//there isn't any way to forward text messages//

Yes, but what would happen if there were two phones out there with identical SIM cards? Would they not both receive texts (and calls) destined for that number?

I have no knowledge of the area, but the business of "phone cloning" was very much in the news a few years ago, and I assumed that it meant grabbing the details of the original phone's SIM, and then programming another SIM so that it behaved like the same number, thereby allowing the cloner to make calls which were billed to the original owner's account.

Is that what "cloning" entails? And, if so, wouldn't the second phone receive the texts destined for the first one?

More to the point, how were the phones "hacked" by the NotW? I can't believe it was very difficult.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 16 2011


//self tapping// Do you screw it, or does it screw you?
-- Ling, Jul 16 2011


Sod it, [Ling], you beat me to it.
-- nineteenthly, Jul 16 2011


//what would happen if there were two phones out there with identical SIM cards? Would they not both receive texts (and calls) destined for that number?//

If they were both switched on at the same time the network might notice that something strange was going on, but if only one was ever switched on I wouldn't be surprised if it works this way.

//how were the phones "hacked" by the NotW?//

In the Milly Dowler case there were reports of the NotW accessing her voicemail - which could be as simple as dialing the right number and guessing a 4 digit password.

//phones with SIM cards, it appears, are more difficult to clone//

As I understand it there's a shared secret in the SIM card which it won't normally reveal; getting this secret out probably isn't impossible, but isn't trivial either.
-- Wrongfellow, Jul 16 2011


//automatically forwarded// Not sure if it's legal for them to not forward it to the FBI, if that agency requests them to do so <link> In the USA, the opt out agreement might have to specify that the messages would not be forwarded to *nongovernmental* parties.
-- mouseposture, Jul 16 2011


//self tapping// Do you screw it, or does it screw you?//

Naah, it's a 1/4 Whitworth, just to be annoying.

Depends. If it's someone eavesdropping on your fairy cake recipe messaging, then you're probably ok. Unless they have a terrible, psychotic fear of fairies, induced by a traumatic incident with a Tinkerbell doll at an early age.

I just wanted some way to save phone messaging hackers from RSI everywhere.

How can that be a rant?

I call this altruism.
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 16 2011



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