Your Cell Phone's Personal Info Isn't So Private
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has obtained a document that details how the four largest U.S. cellphone carriers treat customer data.
The one-page documentation, referred to as the 2010 "data retention chart", comes from the U.S. Justice Department's cybercrime division. It was dated for August 2010.
ACLU made the document public this week, but it has also been available to see on the Vermont public defender's office website. Individuals with a keen interest in the document can also find it through an average Google search - if you know the exact name of it, however.
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Verizon and AT&T are two of the cellphone franchises shown on the list of carriers who keep tabs of their customer's information. Both companies keep information about which cell towers subscriber phones connect to for nearly a year. That data can then be used to figure out where the phone has been, even down to a specific neighborhood.
AT&T has been in possession of such data since July 2008. T-Mobile is said to keep this information for "a year or more."
Sprint holds onto it for two years.
Verizon is shown holding onto their customers' text messages for three to five days. They also compile logs of your Internet-browsing history for 1 year.
AT&T holds onto copies of one's contract bills for five to seven years, while Sprint keeps such data for seven years.
T-Mobile holds onto the info for who you have called, who has called you and other call detail information for two years for pre-paid customers. Contracted customer's information is held onto for five years.
All these cellphone carriers do not compile recordings of customer phone calls. Information about which phone calls are made and received are kept for close to a year, though.
Tom Slovenski, a private investigator specializing in cellphone data, maintains that the document is still accurate at this time despite its August 2010 date. The ACLU believes people have a right to know how long phone companies keep records of their cellphone activities.
Should law enforcement officials ever request this data, all these listed cellphone carriers must provide them with it all.
