# Selling Call History Info For Cellphones: How, And How Is This "Legal?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131 "2005-11-28T23:05:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/1 "2005-11-28T23:05:47Z")
[http://www.local6.com/money/5416040/detail.html](http://www.local6.com/money/5416040/detail.html) I’ve seen these sites before but never heard them described as legal. I guess I assumed it was like some sleazy P.I. who would bribe cellco employees. This makes it sound (and no, I don’t count on television news reporters as accurate assessors of jurisprudential matters) as though it’s some sort of out-in-the-open, “legal” service (though why they would recommend you contact the state attorney general if so is not clear, and makes me suspect that their characterization of legality is dubious). Anyway: 1. How, mechanically/technically, do these companies obtain your call history, and do it so quickly? 2. How can this possibly be legal? Can’t you contact your carrier and demand that they not make your call info. available to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/2 "2005-11-29T02:22:43Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > 1. How, mechanically/technically, do these companies obtain your call history, and do it so quickly? > 2. How can this possibly be legal? Can’t you contact your carrier and demand that they not make your call info. available to anyone? The cell phone companies compile this data on the fly to maintain billing information. Simply a matter of picking out the number of interest to sell. They don’t give it away. Write the FCC to protest and insist that steps be taken to protect your/our privacy. Seems like it is fair game at present. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/3 "2005-11-29T03:12:08Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > The cell phone companies compile this data on the fly to maintain billing information. Simply a matter of picking out the number of interest to sell. They don’t give it away. So it’s the cell phone companies that are selling the data, rather than some data thieves? Do you have a cite for this? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/4 "2005-11-29T04:08:59Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > So it’s the cell phone companies that are selling the data, rather than some data thieves? Do you have a cite for this? This [well-researched Macleans article](http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/article.jsp?content=20051121_115779_115779) got a lot of attention in Canada recently, and according to it: > [@](#): > > A complicating factor is that no one seems to be sure exactly how the data brokers are getting their information. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/5 "2005-11-29T15:22:18Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > So it’s the cell phone companies that are selling the data, rather than some data thieves? Do you have a cite for this? No cite BUT the cell phone providers would be first suspect. Next unscrupulus employees. OR maybe the purveyors ‘suck’ it out of the air! Obviously it is done in some way legal or not. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/6 "2005-11-29T16:05:22Z")
An article I read recently about this described one technique: A PI calls the cell company claiming to be you and asks them to send your history to “you”. But of course, “you” just moved so please send it to this other address. (It’s listed as a possible method in the Macleans article too.) It is astonishing how simple methods such as this work. However, it is incredibly unlikely that such methods will work in the large scale that this activity appears to occur. I highly suspect an inside job. Where there’s money, there’s a way. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-call-history-info-for-cellphones-how-and-how-is-this-legal/333131/7 "2005-11-29T19:56:18Z")
I heard that they call pretending to be the owner of the number too. Sounds illegal to me. And if the cell phone companies really are selling the info it needs to be publically disclosed and the companies shamed.