Is it possible for someone to spoof your cell phone number in the form of a text etc? How about misplace you somewhere you are not?

[Seymour Flops]

If you're really worried about someone attempting to implicate you in a crime, there are ways you can prove your own whereabouts. It's a tactic I had to take up roughly 20 years ago. Now it's done automatically for me.

That's an interesting point.

If an innocent person were accused of a crime their having spoofed their own location or other uncommon phone security measures could be taken as hiding their own criminal activity and proof of guilty knowledge. Whereas, if your phone has standard consumer settings, it will track your location and you would look more innocent.

 

[scruffy]

The number can be spoofed, but not the location.

The location can be spoofed too. I do it every day. I always in Burbank, no matter where I am. The feds could figure me out, but I have all the marketing people stymied lol

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

It's just human wanting to help when you can help. My post wasn't meant as a criticism to you.

Oh no worries, I didn't take it that way or any offense. I've been targeted myself in ways that most people would not even believe, and it's only because I was able to eventually uncover some of what the participants were doing that things began to turn around.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Depends what privacy you've got that you feel you need to hide. Most people don't have much.

As a concept, we all have the right to privacy, heck it's written right into the 4th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and supported through various landmark Supreme Court rulings. Wanting to ensure that right is not violated does not mean that a person has something they're hiding. I kind of got into it with one of my forensic instructors because he basically said the same thing that a lot of people have said - "if you're not doing anything wrong, then what do you have to hide" which is complete bullshit. I guarantee you, you put any of them under the same kind of intrusive scrutiny and surveillance that they want to impose on many of us and the outrage would be hilarious if some of them weren't so dangerous and vindictive.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Fourth Amendment​

​

...In his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1928 called the right to be left alone the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. He was referring to the right to be left alone by the government — a right that today we call privacy.
Americans’ right to be left alone

​

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I don't use money on my phone, without money being impacted, what can they seriously do? Not much.
My mother had someone hack her email, pretty obvious, she wouldn't write like that.

Well you're mistaken. There is a lot of harm that can be done, depending upon the circumstances. Have you not seen the latest crimes that are being committed using AI to impersonate people? Anytime impersonation is involved, the damage that can be done is not a trivial thing.

 

[shockedcanadian]

As a concept, we all have the right to privacy, heck it's written right into the 4th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and supported through various landmark Supreme Court rulings. Wanting to ensure that right is not violated does not mean that a person has something they're hiding. I kind of got into it with one of my forensic instructors because he basically said the same thing that a lot of people have said - "if you're not doing anything wrong, then what do you have to hide" which is complete bullshit. I guarantee you, you put any of them under the same kind of intrusive scrutiny and surveillance that they want to impose on many of us and the outrage would be hilarious if some of them weren't so dangerous and vindictive.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."​

Fourth Amendment​

​

...In his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1928 called the right to be left alone the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. He was referring to the right to be left alone by the government — a right that today we call privacy.​

Americans’ right to be left alone​

​

​

I always say to such people, "we should set video cameras up in your home then.and have them monitored by the state, after all, you have nothing to hide". These are the same people who would have fought for the Axis and have no appreciation for how many died for liberty.

 

[frigidweirdo]

As a concept, we all have the right to privacy, heck it's written right into the 4th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and supported through various landmark Supreme Court rulings. Wanting to ensure that right is not violated does not mean that a person has something they're hiding. I kind of got into it with one of my forensic instructors because he basically said the same thing that a lot of people have said - "if you're not doing anything wrong, then what do you have to hide" which is complete bullshit. I guarantee you, you put any of them under the same kind of intrusive scrutiny and surveillance that they want to impose on many of us and the outrage would be hilarious if some of them weren't so dangerous and vindictive.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."​

Fourth Amendment​

​

...In his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1928 called the right to be left alone the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. He was referring to the right to be left alone by the government — a right that today we call privacy.​

Americans’ right to be left alone​

​

​

Depends what you mean by a right to privacy.

Yesterday I saw a video about a foreigner in Times Square in NY, he was taking photos, some redneck then confronted him demanding he delete his photos because one of these photos may have been a photo of his family.

Do you have a right to not have your photo taken?

Do you have a right for people to not publish any information about you?

Do you have total privacy?

Nope.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Depends what you mean by a right to privacy.

Yesterday I saw a video about a foreigner in Times Square in NY, he was taking photos, some redneck then confronted him demanding he delete his photos because one of these photos may have been a photo of his family.

Do you have a right to not have your photo taken?

Do you have a right for people to not publish any information about you?

Do you have total privacy?

Nope.

Whether or not one has a right to privacy depends on what the expectation of privacy is. In certain places and under certain circumstances such as the ones I listed which are protected via the U.S. constitution, we absolutely have the right to privacy but that doesn't mean that it's absolute.

There is less of an expectation of privacy in public than there is in private places such as bathrooms, dressing rooms, inside of your own home, inside of the enclosed spaces of your yard, etc.

People taking photos of you inadvertently or on purpose can be a violation of your privacy or not, depending on other circumstances but it is generally not. Here in Washington state, all interactions with law enforcement is considered "public" therefore no expectation of privacy and these interactions may be recorded.

If the person taking photos of you is unlawfully following, stalking or harassing you, you may have a tort claim against them for damages. If the person taking photos of you is working and doing so as part of a surveillance detail or investigation, it may or may not be lawful/actionable but make no mistake about it, it's still a violation of your privacy, the only thing left to determine is whether it's a lawful violation or not (I know that sounds like an oxymoron but that's how they make a determination)

 

[The Duke]

As a former telecom engineer, let me just say that with digital technology and with the proper know-how, all things are possible with your cellphone.


Interesting. Yes, your phone in never really off so long as the battery is in as it continually pings the sites and other management overhead. Interesting that the new phones don't allow removal of the battery, which of course, CAN be removed since it was put inside, if you have the knowledge and skills to take the case apart. I'm sure they rationalize this due to lowered costs + the life of the battery likely outlasting the life of the software inside which they prematurely obsoletize so that you have to buy a new cellphone.

Removing the battery, without power, the phone can no longer receive nor transmit anything. Of course, science always offers an alternative and if you want to REALLY remove your phone from the network that no one can call nor track you, etc., while leaving the battery in, it sounds like you need a faraday cage for the phone-- serves the same purpose as taking the battery out but a bit easier.

Amazon product ASIN B07JWF1WT4

GoDark® Faraday Bags for Phones

Stop phone tracking & shield your phone from 5G, GPS, EMF, and EMP (MIL-STD-188-125-2) with our military-grade Faraday bags. Lab-tested & durable. Shop now.

godarkbags.com

You can't just pull the battery on 90% of phones today.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

You can't just pull the battery on 90% of phones today.

Or laptops

 

[JohnDB]

Your cell phone can be an alibi or a tattletale. Depending.

However....
For most people you are a single straw hidden in a haystack. A snowflake in an avalanche.

But

If you are trying to keep your conversations private you can't use a cell phone or have one near you ever. (Good luck with that)

Cell phones can be turned on remotely without appearing to be on and listening in to your conversations....and ANY conversations that are electronic can be listened in on.
Military use encrypted satcom....meaning that the voice/data is encrypted long before it leaves the device to go to the satellite to be routed to wherever. And you have to have a decryption sat phone to send/receive anything coherent. However....the fact that there is a signal usually is the giveaway. They have been working on masking that so that it's more difficult to tell that a signal even exists....

BUT

For most people....
They make a type of security holder for your phone that will protect your phone. Because people can use your phone for payments...even unauthorized payments...without so much as touching.
And THAT is a good idea for going into crowded places like train and bus and airport terminals. Especially marketplaces.

Just saying.....
In the USA we don't have a lot of sneaky, high tech thieves. Most do a smash and grab or get a job at a retail store with low security to gain access to credit card information. (Which is getting increasingly difficult to use even if they do get it due to chip readers) And credit thieves are rather easily tracked...so they ARE going to jail.

Bitcoin or other digital currency is the best to steal but again it requires some electronic and programming saavy to pull off.

But as the world wide economy continues to decline and tighten....increased security is not a bad idea. The more people who are desperate for money the more thieves there are.

 

[toobfreak]

You can't just pull the battery on 90% of phones today.

Well, I don't own or use cellphones, haven't for a number of years so I'd have to look at one, I have an electronics test/workbench and tools to do most anything, but if they put the battery IN there, there has to be a way to take it out. Just could be they make the cases now without an active free access door or that you need special tools to open the case or maybe they hard wire or solder the batteries right onto the motherboard, I would have to see, but that would be a real deal breaker for me.