call log at heart of wiretap challenge

With Call Logs, you’ll have complete records of who called, who was called, the phone number, and the date, time, duration and result of the transaction because your account will keep records of all your incoming and outgoing calls and faxes.

Call Logs are great for transaction tracking, expense reports, billing and business metrics. You can even do searches of your call log by date range, type of call, incoming or outgoing, extension and phone number. You’ll be able to email your logs and download them onto your computer and use resident programs for more detailed reports and queries.

What are Call Logs?

For cell phone companies, Call Logs and Text Logs are the same as your “hard-line” phone records. In order to bill you for the usage, the system providing your connection will log each of your calls with the Date, Time, Recipient’s Phone Number, Location of the recipient, and Duration of the call. Text logs will do the same but without duration and location. For all extensive purposed, call logs are the same thing as call records.

These logs DO NOT include in any way an actual recording of your conversations; which means that they can’t be used to eavesdrop on you (in the traditional sense), nor could you ask for a transcript or copy of a conversation. Their sole purpose is to justify and prove the charges appearing on your monthly bill.

Who has access to them?

Call logs are private and confidential to the user. Only your phone company and their affiliates have access to them. For example, your service provider has to get your bills printed, and sometimes does it through a third party. That third party doesn’t really have a choice but to access these call logs, since they are the ones putting them on paper. On the other hand, they are bound to the same privacy rules and laws as your provider. So outside of you, your company and their affiliates, no one SHOULD have access to your call logs.

That being said, the now-famous Patriot Act of 2001 does lend federal security agencies the right to subpoena call logs from phone companies, who in turn might use them to set up future wiretappings and security surveillance; such occurrences lead to an ongoing debate towards a possible violation of Civil Rights liberties.

Is it really safe?

A lot of controversy has erupted around cell phone companies and customer call logs over the last few years. Up until 2006, many websites were found to be selling entire lists of call logs from different cell phone providers, which had inexplicably found their way into the wrong hands. Some of those might have been sold from inside by unscrupulous employees, while others could’ve been acquired through “Pretext Calling”, instances where someone will impersonate a client and exploit the more gullible of Customer Service agents into gaining access to an account.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees telecommunication companies, recently decided to strengthen their rules regarding privacy. The new required safeguards included a mandatory password to release records by phone, mandatory notification to the customer for any change in the account, and mandatory consent before sharing information for a joint venture by the company.

Here’s one last tip – shred your phone bills before throwing them away; someone might be “browsing” your trasction.

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OTHER WELL-KNOWN SITES:

ReverseMobile.com this is the twin site of Cellphoneregistry.com, get very good search results.

PhoneNumber411.com provides adequate search results, but not enough accuracy. Database data is collected from public records, government documents, magazine subscriptions and third party data providers.

WhitePages.com - provide outdated residential number lookup only, no cell or unlisted, make sure to put "-" on numbers.

SuperPages.com Offers reverse search for regular phone numbers, toll-free numbers, no cell/unlisted.

Infospace.com: Only offers business name and address reverse lookup, plus part is also available for Canada. Doesn't offer cell phone or unlisted number lookup.

Addresses.com - offers residential numbers lookup only, the database is outdated. Cell lookup is linked to Intelius paid service.

Anywho.com - provided by AT&T, it offers reverse phone lookup on RESIDENTIAL phone numbers only and with 20% accuracy.

Cell-phone-numbers.com: This website has the oldest interface in the sector, they do offer reverse cell phone number search with 100% guarantee. It is quite pricey at $65/per search.

Intelius.com - provides reverse lookup pm cellular, business, and unlisted numbers. Charges extra beyond the names search.

Sullr.com - Sleek flash interface, not much choice, but only offers reverse lookup for landlines.

Peoplelookup.com - Database is inadequate, lacks reliability and accuracy, no clear pricing and customer support policy.