| Data convictions…
by: paul dewitt goree Ó2006 las
vegas, nv
here is an interesting, possible
fiction incident. that tests the
integrity of the american
government and corporate america.
business is business, day in and
day out. there exist the “free
market” which is global and has a
major influence on the culture of
the world. the free market,
although the majority of the total
is the most exclusive. it consists
of giant industries that have
merged or have affiliated their
interest. then there is the
“black market” the black market
represent knock offs or stolen
products of the free market. these
items are usually much less in
cost, and it to provides a
financial contribution to society.
the free market industries, due to
their expansiveness, often are
regulated by the government, at
least in the united states. this
protection is directly obtained
from the
fact that the federal government
interest is in the people and not
in the private sector of the
capitalistic world. imagine if the
opposite were true, the f.d.a.
wouldn’t exist and anybody could
put any product on the market, and
regardless of it’s effects, the
consumer would be at risk. the
only role the government has in the
free market, is that of assuring
the protection of people, from the
products and services of the free
market that compromise their civil
rights or health in general.
although this is the matrix of
governmental roles in the market.
sometimes this is over looked, and
completely disrespected, for some
higher goal. for example, the
people of the united states have
stated through various
congressional expressions and
legislation of codes, that
basically state, the federal
government and local government
should not have a integrated
interest industry, whereby the
citizens may be subject to some
civil violation, that results in a
felony criminal conviction. for
the most part, these incidences
that would produce some kind of
complaint in the judicial system,
would be addressed in civil court.
a separations of industry and
state, is very necessary. it
prevent special treatment,
blindness to oblivious concerns,
etc.
point in case, the cell phone
industry is currently going through
a huge fraudulent accounts period.
several of the new accounts
opened, are opened in other persons
name and social security numbers.
supposedly the government does
require the industry to provide
some protective method to prevent
this. but the fraudulent
incidences continue to rise and
rise. when these cases are brought
to court, in all incidences, the
government requires the state to
obtain a warrant, before they
request telephone records of any
particular case. the warrant gives
the state, the right to review
their phone records of the accused.
all is fair, yet it has come to
the attention of many, that while
under a warrant for one telephone
number and it’s call detail, some
enforcer may have escalated their
data search and obtained other
correlations that were later used
for the arrest and conviction of
many other persons, who have not
association with the original
warranted release individual. the
only relationship is that of
correlated data bases, with
different specs.
to make matter worst, recently it
was announced to the american
public, that some of these cell
phone companies, simply just gave
private call records to government
agents. under normal
circumstances, any arrest obtained
from such miss use of government
power, would be retrailed.
basically there is in existence
many felony inmates, arrested and
charged by the obtaining of illegal
database information. most of
these arrest occurred between 1999
and 2005. anybody conducting some
illegal business over a telephone,
may be one of these persons,
voided of due process and arrested
on information that was not and
would not otherwise be linked or
obtained by arresting agents. the
charges are various in nature and
many include other charges.
for example, mr. doe bought a cell
phone on the black market. more
than likely the phone is a
fraudulent phone, but due to the
cell phone carrier, this account is
working fine. maybe these service
providers should be fined for their
reckless use of their customers
vital information. anyway mr. doe
is in possession of large
quantities of a drug. mr. doe has
a son, and his son has a
girlfriend, who he often calls on
their home phone line.
sometimes while away from his home,
mr,doe uses his cell phone to call
his home phone. the transfer of
calls continue on and on. then one
day, the person who sold mr. doe
the phone, is arrested for fraud,
in his case, he is arrested for
selling credit cards. he has a
cell phone on him, during the
arrest, and it is put into the
evidence room. upon reviewing the
evidence of his arrest, enforcers
scroll through his cell phone.
some how all of the numbers in the
cell phone are entered into a data
base. the arrested person does not
have mr. doe’s phone in his
phone, but when the records are
reviewed, it is found that mr.doe
received a call from this phone.
there are other people who received
phone calls from this phone also.
next, the enforcer cross database
that first finding, and he also
includes home phone and business
phone numbers.
as it turns out, mr.doe’s son
while on the home line, received a
call from mr. doe, at the same time
mr. doe had received a call from
the arrested person. his call was
documented, but not available he
received a busy signal. the
enforcer then decided (based on
this one incident of accidental
occurrence) decided to just run mr.
does’ cell phone and home line
number. and to their accepted
surprise they find several
correlations to other persons of
interest to them, that have no
relation to the arrested person.
nevertheless, the papers are
processed, and warrants issued.
but mr. doe’s warrant was issued
on the violation of the 4th
amendment. first of all mr.
doe’s relationship with his cell
phone carrier is a civil private
affair. second mr.doe’s phone
records belong only to him, and on
their own did not suggest any
possible association.
the issue is of great concern,
because it is a bill of right
violation, by which the above
example occurred. a question of
interest arises, who owns the data
detail of the phone bill? we might
assume that since the consumer paid
for the service and security of the
service, and since the consumer
called the phone numbers listed on
the bill, or granted usage for
those numbers to be called, that
the detail and phone numbers listed
on the bill, are the property of
the account holder, once the
account has expired it’s
contract, without renewing a new
contract, but keeping service to
what ever phone number given to
them. but seeming that during the
contractual period, the account
owner is in actuality leasing the
service, the phone number from the
phone carrier, of which the only
portion of the phone that is
actually theirs, is the phone
equipment, if it’s was purchased
in complete.
but there exist a hidden event by
which the about contract would be
voided, by the carrier because a
portion of the phone equipment was
not provided to the account holder,
when they purchased the phone.
this portion is termed subsidy
code. i call 3 manufactures
during the month of june 2003, of
which i had a simple question. can
i purchase a cell phone from you,
directly? two of the three
manufactures replied yes. they are
motorola and nokia. at motorola i
was informed that if i wanted to
purchase a cell phone from them
directly, i would have to indicate
which carrier i intended to receive
service from. at the time,
motorola offered service with
t-mobile, verizon and at&t for
the phone in question. i informed
the csr employee that how could i
purchase the phone without
pre-activating it with any carrier?
i was informed that this was not
possible. i then informed the csr
employee that i wanted to purchase
the phone for a friend in mexico
and that they don’t offer those
carriers in mexico. again the csr
employee suggested remarks that
basically stated, the phones are
manufactured by carrier bids and
request, thus to purchase a phone
for a gift in another country, one
would purchase the phone from that
country. i asked why? this is
america, free business, if you
don’t have an exclusive contract
with any carrier, then why am i the
consumer being pushed into a one
year or two year contract by the
carrier, when all i want is a
motorola product, made by motorola,
for motorola customers.
next i informed the csr employee
that i had heard from a third
carrier about something called a
subsidy code, that turns out to be
the device placed in the phone,
which restricts it to a prescribed
carrier before it even leaves the
manufactures. after several
attempts to get a better understand
of the subsidy code, i eventually
took the well stated advice of the
motorola csr and management team
and called the carrier. i called
verizon and cingular, i asked the
verizon csr employee how could i
have the subsidy code remove from
my phone? i was informed that the
manufacturer places the subsidy
code on the phone during the
manufacturing process. i informed
the representative that i was just
informed otherwise. i ended my
phone call with both, who claimed
that they do not have access to the
subsidy codes.
well the issue with subsidy codes,
is that they are not warranted by
the manufacturer and only exist as
a contractual issue by the carrier.
now upon the completion of a
contract with a cell phone carrier,
you would think the subsidy code
would be provided to the account
holder. it seems that not even
during this event would the carrier
offer the subsidy code. why would
a consumer want the subsidy code,
well it is the product that locks
your phone into the one or two year
contract, thus preventing you the
option to have a free phone, which
would be avoided of the data
ownership issues, and would provide
you, the consumer the right to shop
carriers. if you were to purchase
a cell phone from the
manufacturers, you could receive
better phone rates as this would
cause the carriers to compete more
effectively. you could also
activate your phone in a foreign
country, freely choosing the
carrier you want. perhaps you
could use a carrier in mexico (who
offer a low rate) and relocate to
united state, still using the same
phone. nevertheless the subsidy
code restricts the free american
consumer, choose of carriers, based
on phone equipment and it also
locks the consumer into a one or
two contract for service.
so if i had a cell phone equipment
purchased directly from the
manufacturer, and it was unlocked,
and then i decided to activate
service with any carrier, and
signed a one year contract anyway
(i guess fair business practice) at
this point, would i own the detail
to the phone bill? it seems that
this is one huge confusing mess, of
which some innocent people are
having their privacy invaded, just
because their phone number showed
up on someone else’s bill. as a
cell phone owner, i always assumed
that all the data belonged to me. i
was reassured of this in 2004, when
nextel offered copyright services
on their phones, providing the
customer the opportunity to
copyright the detail,
conversations, and written
properties on their phone. some
people write songs, reports, or
dialogue on their phone, or review
private business issues over the
phone, is that what it’s for any
way, communication.
it’s only fair that this issue be
reviewed, i have submitted similar
reports to the a.c.l.u concerning
the invasion of privacy that occurs
when the ownership of the data
detail is in dispute. consumers
have to demand their right to the
subsidy code, it is part of the
manufactured product, when it
leaves the warehouse. currently
many websites and local phone
companies offer consumers unlock
codes for their cell phones, which
range from $19.99 and up. but why
should the consumer have to pay for
something they already paid for
when they purchased the phone?
Why? because millions of people write a cheque and pay these charges without blinking an eye.
I'd rob peeople blind if they let me too |
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