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Anonymous #1
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Text messages...
#12199850 - 03/14/10 11:09 AM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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So, I regularly send text messages like "did you pick up the herb?" or "my plants are looking so sweet! And smell like super skunk" without putting much thought into it.
I'll admit - I hang out with some hoods. Usually just to toke or drink some brews...I'm never really associated with their crimes. I am, however, a graffiti artist.
I have sent pictures of my graffiti, some of my lights, etc. through my cell phone.
Since I hang out with these dudes who do crimes sometimes, I might end up in a "guilty by association" situation.
Now, can the police really look back through your text messages? I know some mayor AND Tiger Woods got busted this way...but how practical is it? Do they only use it if the person is an official, or if they have committed some kind of murder or something?
I have jokes on my phone about murder and shit all the time.
I'm going to start being a lot more careful about what I say and do on the phone...but...will it come back to bite me in the ass?
How can I go about calling up my wireless provider and asking them this without sounding suspicious?
I'm very paranoid all of a sudden.
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Doc_T
Random Dude




Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 42,395
Loc: Colorado
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It's all computerized, they can get it with a few mouse clicks. How common? Dunno, but I'd guess 'very'.
-------------------- You make it all possible. Doesn't it feel good?
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Anonymous #1
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Re: Text messages... [Re: Doc_T]
#12199871 - 03/14/10 11:16 AM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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*smashes phone*
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Doc_T
Random Dude




Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 42,395
Loc: Colorado
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That won't get rid of the trail.
Computer guys never delete anything. They probably have your entire history in one file.
-------------------- You make it all possible. Doesn't it feel good?
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Jabbawaya

Registered: 07/10/05
Posts: 1,479
Last seen: 10 years, 5 months
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Re: Text messages... [Re: Doc_T]
#12201926 - 03/14/10 05:44 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Try to avoid recording anything that you wouldn't want others to see... texting, video recording, photos, other written documentation, etc. It boggles my mind to think of how many people have been prosecuted through their own video footage of a crime in progress.
Text messages have been admitted as evidence. For your privacy it's a good idea not to document your illegal activities, however minor they may be.
--------------------
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Text messages... [Re: Jabbawaya]
#12205951 - 03/15/10 12:20 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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It's idiotic to be leaving a public record documenting your illegal acts. Talking about it is one thing because that dissipates and is gone immediately, they also need a warrant to intercept it.
But a text requires no warrant and is there basically forever. You can forget about running for any sort of political office forever already.
What you're doing is as stupid as keeping a journal of all your crimes and giving all your friends the title and location of the journal.
Two things people really need to know is that pen registers (your phone records) and text messages can be read by any government agency for whatever reason with NO warrant whatsoever. They're business records and you have no (legal) expectation of privacy with them.
Plus texting is pretty fucking GHEY anyways.
-------------------- It drinks the alcohol and abstains from the weed or else it gets the hose again. -Chemy The difference between the substances doesn't matter. This is a war on consciousness, on our right to the very essence of what we are. With no control over that, we have no need to speak of freedom or a free society. -fireseed "If we are going to have a war on marijuana, the least we can do is pull the sick and the dying off the battlefield." -Neal Levine (MPP) I find the whole "my drug should be legal but yours should be illegal" mindset disgusting and hypocritical. It's what George Bush and company do when they drink a cocktail and debate the best way to imprison marijuana users. -Diploid
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Anonymous #2
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Re: Text messages... [Re: fastfred]
#12206962 - 03/15/10 03:07 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Is it really that bad? His political future is ruined for some "herb" texts? I find it hard to imagine that in 20 years a scandal will break that some politician had a few texts about mj when he was a kid. I mean damn say goodbye to politics for 99.999% of the people here. Is it more the graffiti and grow, more an exaggeration, or am I just wrong?
On that note, how long are text records actually kept? Why would a company keep those records (as in what benefit do they gain)? I mean it seems an awful lot of data to keep for no benefit. Im not sure of the figures for 2009 but in 2008 the US sent 1 trillion text messages, up from 363 billion the year before (a near 300% increase so the number is probably still growing).
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Anonymous #3
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They do read texts I have a friend that's facing alot of time, because of one text from there phone...
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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> Is it really that bad? His political future is ruined for some "herb" texts?
Since his texts appear to implicate him in felony activities, then yes he can remove politics from his career worksheet.
> On that note, how long are text records actually kept?
Who knows? It certainly varies by provider.
> Why would a company keep those records
Why wouldn't they? They have to keep them for some length of time and they're usually so small it probably costs more to delete them than to keep them.
> I mean it seems an awful lot of data to keep for no benefit.
It's not very much data. The average text is probably only a dozen or two bytes long. They have to keep them long enough to bill the customer and most companies have some sort of backup system, so it would be an awful lot of work to go into the backups to delete old crap.
The whole point is that it's stupid to generate physical evidence of your crime, recorded for possibly all of eternity by your own dumb ass.
I mean come on, would you trust your dealer if every time you bought a dime bag he wrote down your name, the date and time, and then filed it away? Well, that's exactly what's happening when dumbasses feel they need to record everything they do because they can't wipe their own ass without texting someone.
Back in the day, if anyone I was dealing with texted anything I'd take their phone and smash it on the ground and slap their face. There just isn't a code of common sense anymore.
-FF
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S33D
this side up

Registered: 11/13/05
Posts: 511
Loc: skylabONE
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Re: Text messages... [Re: fastfred]
#12207909 - 03/15/10 05:48 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Not to mention the digital trail of breadcrumbs your cell leaves behind with gps and tower triangulation.
-------------------- If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit. ~Dr. Emmett Brown
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Anonymous #4
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Re: Text messages... [Re: fastfred]
#12208142 - 03/15/10 06:29 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
fastfred said: It's idiotic to be leaving a public record documenting your illegal acts. Talking about it is one thing because that dissipates and is gone immediately, they also need a warrant to intercept it.
But a text requires no warrant and is there basically forever. You can forget about running for any sort of political office forever already.
What you're doing is as stupid as keeping a journal of all your crimes and giving all your friends the title and location of the journal.
Two things people really need to know is that pen registers (your phone records) and text messages can be read by any government agency for whatever reason with NO warrant whatsoever. They're business records and you have no (legal) expectation of privacy with them.
Plus texting is pretty fucking GHEY anyways.
Do you mean they can read them off of your phone, or they can contact the cell company and get a print out of the texts?
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Anonymous #3
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Re: Text messages... [Re: S33D]
#12208377 - 03/15/10 07:08 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
S33D said: Not to mention the digital trail of breadcrumbs your cell leaves behind with gps and tower triangulation.
This is how they got my friend....One text from were a murder happen...And the dumb-ass would tell people how the gov didn't read texts....
Edited by Anonymous (03/15/10 07:10 PM)
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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> Do you mean they can read them off of your phone, or they can contact the cell company and get a print out of the texts?
They can do either. If your arrested they will usually search your phone "incident to the arrest". Otherwise they just call the phone company and get your texts emailed to them with no warrant.
They're also "pinging" people (locating them via cell phone) without warrants.
So they have no problem getting your texts and your location with no warrant. That makes it pretty easy for them to get you. The only thing that is still protected is actual voice communications.
Last I read there was still some legal wrangling over warrantless seizing of text messages. But that's an "after the fact" legal battle at YOUR expense with little chance of success. As a matter of practice they are still getting your texts easily with no warrant.
They should really include a warning with cell phones. Something like... Quote:
"You have no expectation of privacy with this device. The government or your provider can read your texts and locate you at any time without a warrant. The only expectation of privacy you have is on voice calls, which has been extended to you only as a historical courtesy."
-------------------- It drinks the alcohol and abstains from the weed or else it gets the hose again. -Chemy The difference between the substances doesn't matter. This is a war on consciousness, on our right to the very essence of what we are. With no control over that, we have no need to speak of freedom or a free society. -fireseed "If we are going to have a war on marijuana, the least we can do is pull the sick and the dying off the battlefield." -Neal Levine (MPP) I find the whole "my drug should be legal but yours should be illegal" mindset disgusting and hypocritical. It's what George Bush and company do when they drink a cocktail and debate the best way to imprison marijuana users. -Diploid
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
Last seen: 2 days, 23 hours
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Quote:
So, I regularly send text messages like "did you pick up the herb?" or "my plants are looking so sweet! And smell like super skunk" without putting much thought into it.
Don't do that any more.
The easiest way for it to bite you is if you get busted for something else, the cops will always search your phone.
If you have any incriminating messages in your inbox, outbox, or drafts, delete them ASAP.
Of course they can easily get them from the cell phone company too but that is not as common.
Its a whole lot safer to discuss illegal things via a voice call, but still a bad idea.
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