New-technology cellphones pose privacy risk

It seems that the latest generation of 'smart' cellphones aren't quite as innocent as they may seem.

The latest handsets are so advanced they can reveal the location of the owner to within a few yards - along with their internet shopping habits, their interests and the names and addresses of their friends.

Although phone providers are not supposed to pass on this 'Big Brother' data without permission, a 'worryingly large number' of people give consent for the information to be sold to marketing companies, campaigners say.

Simon Davies, of human rights group Privacy International, said the danger came when customers signed up to contracts or downloaded new mobile phone applications without reading the small print.

One of the most potentially intrusive applications is Google Latitude, which lets mobile phone owners 'share' their location with anyone in the world.

Mr Davies added that the risks of such snooping software on these 'smart phones' were far more sinister than Google's controversial-Street View service.

'People are giving consent for mobile phone companies to pass on this information without realising the consequences,' he said.

. . .

'People should care because this sort of information can be passed to a third party such as a credit provider or a credit reference company. It provides an enormous database that could be cherry-picked by the Government or police.

. . .

Records of website visits, messages, phone calls and even real-life locations visited can be stored by a mobile phone company. Although each application is relatively harmless on its own, combining data from several is potentially lucrative.

Glyn Read, a former marketing director of SAS Institute, a leading behavioural analysis company, said the ‘real worry’ would come when governments start to demand access to the data.

‘What is going on at the moment is the opening of a barn door in your personal habits,’ he told the Guardian. ‘The value of understanding people's personal information is enormous - this will allow a form of subliminal advertising.'

There's more at the link.

This is not good. Companies don't give two hoots about consumers' privacy at the best of times. Now that they can actually make money out of our normal, everyday activities, they'll be trying to milk us of every snippet of information they can.

Peter