cell phones

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Secret US Spy Program Tracks Cellphone Users

Planes carrying 'dirtboxes' trick phones into sending identifying data and location

(Newser) - The extent to which the US government spies on US soil continues to unfold. The latest revelation: Using Cessna aircraft over at least five metropolitan-area airports, the Justice Department oversees (albeit to an unknown extent) a program that indiscriminately accesses large amounts of cellphone data, including identifying information and people'...

Mystery 'Interceptors' Capture Our Calls: Experts

And they don't appear to be NSA installations

(Newser) - Security experts have been spotting so-called "fake cellphone towers" of unknown origin that could be spying on us. The "interceptors," as they're called, trick our phones into thinking they're regular cell towers; then, according to VentureBeat , they can listen to our calls or pave the...

New App Keeps Kids From Ignoring Mom's Phone Calls

Frustrated mom invents Ignore No More app for Android

(Newser) - Watch out, kids: When her teens ignored her calls checking up on their safety, mom Sharon Standifird "literally just started researching how to develop an app" that would paralyze their phones until they called her back, she tells CBS New York ; thus, Ignore No More was born. The Android-exclusive...

Parents, Look at Your Kid, Not Your Smartphone

Pediatrician pleads for parents to put down their phones

(Newser) - A pediatrician's plea in the Washington Post for parents to put down their smartphones and make actual human contact with their kids might be worth it for the opening anecdote alone. Jane Scott explains that a dad brought his 2-year-old boy into her office, each absorbed in his own...

Israel Tapped John Kerry&#39;s Phone
 Israel Tapped 
 John Kerry's Phone 
NEW REPORT
Aug 3, 2014 12:37 PM CDT

Israel Tapped John Kerry's Phone

Somewhere, Angela Merkel is smiling

(Newser) - It seems that people who live in glass houses shouldn't spy on cell phones : During the frenetic and doomed Mideast peace talks last year, John Kerry was furiously working the phones to both Israel and the Palestinians—and as der Spiegel reports in an exclusive that cites "reliable...

Unlocking Your Cell Phone Will Soon Be Legal

...but the rules are still murky

(Newser) - The rules on unlocking your phone —allowing you to use it with any carrier—are hard to keep up with. Just two years after the US Copyright Office ruled that unlocking was illegal without permission from your carrier, Congress has turned things around again. Lawmakers have passed a bipartisan...

FTC: T-Mobile Crammed Bogus Charges Onto Bills

And made hundreds of millions in the process

(Newser) - If you're a T-Mobile customer, the following is unlikely to deepen your love for your mobile carrier. The FTC today filed a complaint alleging that T-Mobile has for years "crammed bogus charges onto customers' bills," making hundreds of millions in the process, per a press release on...

Court's Ruling on Cell Phones Is Milestone for Privacy

Pundits: Finally, justices prove they understand technology's role in modern life

(Newser) - They may not be an especially tech-savvy bunch, but today's ruling on cell phones shows that the Supreme Court justices are anything but Luddites, writes Dahlia Lithwick at Slate . The court ruled unanimously that police need a warrant under almost all circumstances to search somebody's cell phone, with...

Teen Falls Down Alaska Mountain While on Phone

Cherelle LaGrou was telling mom how nervous the conditions made her

(Newser) - A 2013 study suggested distracted walking could be more dangerous than distracted driving; Cherelle LaGrou is likely to agree. The Washington teen was hiking alone in Alaska on Sunday when she slid down a mountainside near Denali National Park. Well, not exactly alone. The 18-year-old was talking to her mother...

From Stage, Spacey Scolds Theatergoer About Phone

And he didn't even break character

(Newser) - A cell phone went off last night in London's Old Vic theater as Kevin Spacey was in the middle of a tense scene. The theatergoer apparently thought he could play innocent and let it keep ringing—until Spacey himself erupted from the stage, reports the Independent . "If you...

Today's Big Supreme Court Case: Cellphone Searches

At issue: Can cops search them without a warrant?

(Newser) - Two cases in front of the Supreme Court today have been getting a good deal of advance press, due in no small part to the impact they could have on the way hundreds of thousands of Americans are treated when they're arrested. Or, more specifically, how their cellphones are...

Sprint Unveils 'Starter' Phone for Kids

$10 a month device aimed at 5- to 12-year-olds

(Newser) - Is your kid ready for her first cell phone? Sprint's hoping so, and the company wants to be the first to put a device in your 5- to 12-year-old's pocket. Its offering: the WeGo, which Sprint it marketing as "Safe. Simple. Secure." The no-frills phone contains...

Why Were There No Calls From Missing Jet?

Experts say plane may have been too high for signal

(Newser) - One of the biggest puzzles inside the huge mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is why there appear to have been no phone calls, social media messages, or any other attempts at communication from the 227 passengers after the flight was apparently diverted. Experts say that in contrast to the...

Teen Killed Trying to Retrieve Phone From Tracks

She was sucked in by freight train's 'vacuum'

(Newser) - Yet another person has died after putting her phone's safety ahead of her own. Jenna Betti, 14, was killed by a freight train on Sunday when she tried to retrieve a phone she had dropped on the tracks in Martinez, Calif., reports the San Francisco Chronicle . She had been...

Scam Alert: Beware of a Call That Only Rings Once

New trick involves getting you to call back

(Newser) - The Better Business Bureau calls it the "One-Ring Phone Scam": Scammers call your phone, let it ring once, and hang up. That prompts you—the scammers hope—to call back, allowing them to pile on charges while you're connected. The calls usually come from outside the US, but...

Ukraine Uses Cell Phones to Track Protesters

Government sends mass text warning to demonstrators

(Newser) - Scourge of the modern protester: Ukraine demonstrators this morning got this text on their cell phones: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance," reports the New York Times . The threat is clear enough, given that the government also made it a crime punishable...

We&#39;re More Sociable With Cell Phones

 We're More Sociable 
 With Cell Phones 
new study
Jan 19, 2014 1:35 PM CST

We're More Sociable With Cell Phones

Rutgers study compares new and old public behavior

(Newser) - The modern American spends too much time staring at screens and not enough socializing—right? That's what popular books like Bowling Alone and Alone Together have argued, but Rutgers professor Keith Hampton put that theory to the test by filming people in public spaces, the New York Times Magazine...

2 Dead After Man Drops Phone in Icy Chicago River

A third person is in critical condition after desperate plunge

(Newser) - One person is dead, one is missing, and one is in critical condition after a man dropped his cell phone in the Chicago River—and went lunging in after it, the Chicago Tribune reports. The phone's owner, a 26-year-old man, was found dead in the icy waters this morning,...

Delta, Southwest, JetBlue: No Phone Calls Mid-Flight

Airlines decide before FCC makes decision on rule change

(Newser) - The feds might soon lift rules that forbid plane passengers from talking on their cell phones during flights, but the airlines themselves are balking. Delta announced today that it won't allow such calls no matter what the FCC decides, reports the LA Times . The airline joins Southwest and JetBlue...

NSA Able to Decode Most Calls, Texts Worldwide

Washington Post unveils latest Snowden material

(Newser) - The NSA is capable of breaking the encryption used on most phone calls and text messages worldwide, the latest Edward Snowden leak shows, though it's not certain how often the agency actually does it. Under US law, the NSA can't eavesdrop on citizens' conversations without a court order....

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