This has been widely known and used in the investigative world for several years now, but this is the first time I've noticed a prominent story on the subject appearing in the media... Cell phones present a problem for investigators. Unlike landlines there have been no entrenched ways of getting good data on who a cell number belongs to, or vice versa - what a person's cell number might be. They're essentially all unlisted.

The need for this type of data is at the heart of the investigative enterprise. Forget all that pretexting, cell phone record swiping jive. Cell phone numbers, on their own merits are one of many indicators that can help you tell two John Smiths apart and can in some cases make or break a due diligence investigation. I can't even tell you some of the things that I've uncovered based on knowing a cell. Nuclear stuff....

But these numbers are hard to come by and coverage has been spotty. Maybe you find one because somebody used a cell number when filling out their personal data in some form of public record. Might help you in that one case, but to really be a reliable and regular tool for investigators you need to aggregate massive amounts of numbers and be able to link them to just about anyone you might be called upon to investigate.

In seeking to meet this demand (and parallel demand from other quarters - investigators are hardly the only customers for this sort of thing), the big database companies have come a long way in cataloging cell numbers, in part be making some creative moves that go beyond the scope of typical public record buys. You do realize that your state government probably makes money selling your records to these companies, yes?

Well, now you do.

Now, it is actually illegal for telephone companies to compile mobile numbers in a directory without users' consent. This would seem to imply that cell phone numbers are meant to be essentially private personal data. But the rules governing wireless companies don't cover third parties. This loophole has allowed data aggregators to do off the wall things like buy your phone numbers in bulk (say, 90 million of them) from pizza delivery companies.

To be fair, from the perspective of an investigator and his or her clients, there is much to defend the access to and use of these numbers as a research tool, given that mobile phones have become the defacto way in which many if not most of us communicate (currently there are more mobile-only homes than land line-only households). But I am all for transparency in the investigative process and our citizens deserve to know how their personal and explicitly non-public information is be used by vendors and accessed by third parties.

I must confess, having been out of the biz for a few years I am behind the times on what all is being used out there. But discussing these things in the open and refining the rules surrounding their use is good for all of us and for the investigative community. If the tools we use make us ashamed, we should question their appropriateness. If the tactics and practices of our industry cannot bear the light of day, all the more reason to let the sun shine on them.

If anyone can point out other odd-ball or potentially controversial data being collected by the big aggregators - do tell.

-- MDT

Labels: cell phone numbers, data brokers, Intellius