My favourite science writer deviates from his usual “Bad Science” column to describe how, with just 5 minutes access to his girlfriend’s cellphone and £5 plus tax to a website operator, he was able to track his girlfriend’s movements on a minute-by-minute basis. Ben describes the scariness of this:
Your mobile phone company could make money from selling information about your location to the companies that offer this service. If you have any reason to suspect that your phone might have been out of your sight, even for five minutes, and there is anyone who might want to track you: call your phone company and ask it to find out if there is a trace on your phone. Anybody could be watching you.
This was with a UK-based GSM phone, but what with all the hoopla around being able to purchase cellphone call records here in the US, I wouldn’t be surprised if such a “service” existed here too.