by Bill Rounds
How to Vanish

Recently
by Bill Rounds:
Police Corruption Out of Control: Threatens Personal Information

The issue of
camera
cell phone privacy is extremely important in todayÂ’s age
and far-reaching. Many cell phone cameras by default and automatically
reveal tremendous amounts of information such as the physical location
of a picture, time, date, cell phone model, etc. Additionally, a
number of phone companies and facilities along with laws and implementations
have increased so much in recent times that it is often difficult
to keep up on what privacy protections you have.

Begin with
checking the kind of subscriber information you are providing to
a company for services. Some employees and hackers have a tendency
of using such private information for nefarious purposes. You might
use a ghost
address. A pre-paid cell phone or SIM card can greatly increase
your cell
phone security and privacy. A super ninja trick would be to
use a pre-paid
wireless service paid for with bitcoins.

Some networks
give you the option of recharging your phone continuously without
asking you for private information. But this habit may not be most
effective if you change your pre-paid connections often in order
to maintain privacy and escape notice of any miscreant. For example,
you could use a Google Voice
number, although anything with Google may be problematic for
privacy concerns, to forward to your mobile phone number and then
you could get different SIM cards every few months.

Many phone
numbers are easily available in telephone directories or transactional
databases. Every time you give your number to a company chances
are that they are recorded, databased and archived. These numbers
are vulnerable because often criminals might use the number in order
to create a completely false profile with the information and is
another reason to keep
your phone number private. Cleaning up from identity
theft can be time consuming. Additionally, if the company has
no valid reason to know your phone number then you could decide
not to provide one or provide one which is not actively used.

In countries
like the USA it is easy to block your caller ID details. Call forwarding
or call screening, a service provided by Google Voice, is another
excellent option to avoid callers who will disturb you and your
privacy. With Google Voice you can even block numbers. These are
great ways to protect your cell phone number.

Your location
is an integral way in which you can easily be tracked. Make it a
point to turn off the GPS navigation system or WiFi which decreases
the probability that your physical location may be tracked. Prevent
your phone from being too clogged up with data. From time to time
it is a good idea to get delete messages, call records, contacts,
files, etc. Then should you lose your phone anyone who finds it
will not be able to access as much information and therefore you
will be less vulnerable to all those who are seeking to expose your
privacy.

If you take
pictures with your cell phone and post them online then this can
expose your camera cell phone privacy because often the physical
location is encoded with the picture file. For example, the EXIF
file may contain information such as when the picture was taken,
what kind of phone model and if your cell phone has GPS then the
coordinates.

Last but not
the least, make sure that you do not stay away from your phone too
long because you may never know who may access it. And, of course,
password protect it!

Cell phone
privacy is very difficult to attain. Protect as much of your confidential
communications using your cell phone or smart phone as possible.
Check out the book How
To Vanish or the Basic
Privacy Guide for more tips on taking control of and protecting
your privacy.

Reprinted
with permission from How to
Vanish.

June
13, 2012

Bill
Rounds, J.D. is a California attorney. He holds a degree in Accounting
from the University of Utah and a law degree from California
Western School of Law. He practices civil litigation, domestic
and foreign business entity formation and transactions, criminal
defense and privacy law. He is a strong advocate of personal and
financial freedom and civil liberties.

Copyright
© 2012 How
to Vanish

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