Text Messaging Privacy

Text-messaging privacy is a hot topic once again, thanks to the latest text-messaging sex scandal involving Detroit's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty. The Detroit Free Press examined over 14,000 text messages obtained from Beatty's pager, publishing those that confirmed the two were having an affair and lied under oath about it.

We're reminded time and time again to refrain from sending personal emails using the office computer. Maybe they should've taken a few precautions with the office pager too. David Chamberlain, a wireless analyst for In-Stat, reminds us that users of any technology issued by an employer shouldn't expect to have any privacy. It's obvious the mayor's mistake was using a city-issued pager to exchange personal messages with his aide, but what about the rest of us? Should we have to worry about old texts resurfacing even when using our private lines?

According to a report by the Associated Press, Beatty's text messaging service was provided by SkyTel who has contracts exclusively with corporations and government agencies, and not surprisingly, stores all communication for legal reasons. It's not exactly clear how many years these text messages are archived for, but the Detroit Free Press says the messages obtained cover two months in 2002 and 2003.

As for the rest of us, AT&T says they keep messages for up to 72 hours, Sprint PCS for two weeks, and Verizon says texts don't stay on the network for a long period, adding "people can feel comfortable we're not storing information that can later be used against them." Oh, really? Then how is it that in many cases the police and even hackers have been able to obtain old text messages archived somewhere in a carrier's server?

The truth is, regardless of what a carrier says, this isn't the first time text messaging has been used to expose cheaters, stalkers, murderers, or thieves, nor will it be the last. Text messaging has become a huge part of our lives, and it will be the first place law enforcement officers will turn to for clues. I've heard so many people expressing concern over text message privacy, and the reality is there is none. Your privacy is up to you, so you have to be careful with the information you put out there.

There are inexpensive ways to intercept text messages out there using a radio kit, and the worst part is anyone can figure out how to create one by searching online. Bob Sullivan wrote a good article regarding the topic, after a Wal-Mart employee was caught spying on a New York Times reporter using a radio device.

We may not have any control over our texts once we hit the send button, but you can take a few precautions to keep yourself out of trouble later.

Here are a few tips:

• Don't ever text personal information such as your PIN number, password, or banking information to anyone. Remember, once you send that information to another person, it gets stored in their cell phone and you don't want that.
• Put a password on your phone to keep others from accessing your text logs or email. This will also prevent thieves from stealing information stored in your phone.
• iPhone owners may want to change their SMS preview settings to make incoming text messaging more private. Apple iPhone Review has instructions on how to do this.
• Those concerned about privacy, can send anonymous text messages with services like AnonTxt.com.
• Don't forget to erase all your personal data before selling, recycling or donating your old phone. Many people are still under the impression that taking out your SIM card will do the trick, but that's not true. You'll need a series of codes to permanently delete stored information in one step, instead of manually. For this, you'll need to find out if your phone has a "master reset" feature, which wipes out all the stored data at once. Since every phone has a different set of "master reset" instructions, you'll need to either look them up online or on your phone's manual. Recellular has a database of these codes with step-by-step instructions. You'll need your phone's make and model to get started, so if you don't know it, check the back of the phone or the box.
• And last but not least, remember that no matter how secure you think your carrier's SMS servers are, the ultimate security of private text messages depends on the recipient. Just ask Mayor Kilpatrick.