There have been numerous stories in the media lately about the government playing ‘big brother’ and spying on American citizens.

Some say that our rights to basic civil liberties, guaranteed to us in the Constitution, are being challenged by the president and his administration in an attempt to protect us from terrorist attacks.

Others say that the president has every right to do whatever he deems necessary in order to protect this nation, as he swore to do when he took the oath of office. Both sides are passionate in their beliefs and both have good and valid points in their arguments. This debate will go on for some time, but in the mean time, others in this country are doing something very similar and few are paying attention.

There are dozens of online services who are selling cell phone records to anyone willing to pay the price. In some instances, telephone company employees secretly sell customers’ phone call logs to online brokers, despite strict company rules forbidding such behavior. In other cases, online brokers resort to deception to get the information they want. Brokers use a method called “pretexting”, in which a broker pretends to be a phone’s owner and dupes the phone company into giving out the information, such as saying they’ve lost their bill and want another one sent to an address they provide.

At first, one might think that such information isn’t anything to get upset about. But stop and think of the possible ramifications of that information being in the wrong hands. What first caught my attention was when I read that an FBI agent’s phone records had been purchased and received within three hours. This means that any criminal can get his hands on personal information and compromise operations, and even cost lives. And if that doesn’t mean much to some, this ease in obtaining cell phone records of others also means that a suspicious spouse or significant other can check to see who you are calling, an ex-mate can get your records and cause trouble, employers can find out who you are talking to and when (on company time?), and prospective employers can check to see if you are calling too many doctors (a psychologist perhaps?) and base their decisions on that information, without you being any the wiser.

Apparently, pretexting is illegal when used to obtain financial information, but not phone records, which can contain very personal information. At the moment, the only way to protect your cell phone records is to call your phone company and request that a password be used before any information can be given out. Considering that the laws of our nation can’t keep pace with the technological advances of our society, password protection seems to be the only option we have.