Cell Phones...Single Point of Failure - Sophia's Story

Question: Have you ever had a panic attack thinking you left your phone somewhere?

Do you think life will be over if you had to get a new cell phone number?

Really...how important is your phone?

    The problem is, not only do we have a physical and emotional dependance on one single device, we’re not aware of the risks. In other words, your physical phone is not needed to target you...because you attach your IDENTITY to your PHONE NUMBER!

    It’s not your fault. We’re blinded by “free” upgrades every few years, and we give the cell phone companies carte blanche to do what they wish with our information...including surveillance. But if we have a private, secure phone, and phone number, we can protect this most vulnerable area.

    For Sophia, leaving her cell phone exposed was the last “piece of the puzzle” for her former employer to surveil her...pushing her over to the edge to the point where she had to quit her job.

How Your Cell Phone is the Easiest Target

    People have become so dependent on this single device, that if something were to happen to it, we’d lose all rational sense. We gladly give out our most private information for a “free upgrade” every few years.

    If you’re like most, your cell phone is your most valuable possession. But we blindly trust the people, and companies, who have this most valuable information. We never think something bad will happen...until it does.

    I don’t just mean your phone number. Think of all the other areas your real cell phone number is attached to: home, work, accounts, apps, social media, banks, government… Not only that, when we give out our number, we are usually giving out all the real information attached to that number: name, address, birthday, SSN...

    But for Sophia, leaving her cell phone exposed was the last “piece of the puzzle” for her former employer to surveil her...pushing her over to the edge to the point where she had to quit her job.

    It wasn’t her fault. Most of us don’t think about how much information we give up when we go on a cell phone plan. We leave ourselves exposed not only to annoying spammers and data breaches, but open to surveillance.

    People treat their cell phones like an extension of their body. This device is the biggest point of failure if someone were to target you. The solution to privacy and security with your phone, and the rest of your devices, is to optimize them, so they are not attached to your real name. So if someone wanted you “tracked” they wouldn’t have your real number. There would be little, if anything to track.

Sophia’s Story

    Sophia, and her husband Sal, were doing very well investing in real estate. They started out in the city, then moved to the countryside to live a better life. They could support themselves with their real estate, but Sophia still wanted a job, in banking, just to “get out of the house.” Within a year, she moved from a teller position to operations director at a management office, creating jealously and suspicion among coworkers and her employer. She built some rapport, and liked talking about her real estate investments. Because of certain jealous coworkers, the management decided to dig further into her life and background...and suspected her of money laundering!

    Because she used her personal cell phone, gave that number out freely, and used her laptop to occasionally work from home, her employer (the bank) was able to get a “wiretap” on her cell phone (her cell provider had all her personal info). The basis of the money laundering accusation came from not finding any mortgages on the real estate.

“How can you own real estate without debt?” they wondered.

    They accused her of using illegal funds to buy real estate. When going into a government regulated job like banking, you are under a tremendous amount of scrutiny, so these accusations were baseless.

    In reality, she used private loans to fund her purchases, which are not public record. This is a common practice to help friends, family members or partners get started in investing. 
I explained to Sophia that if she kept her devices private and secure, there would be no possibility of phone surveillance. To prove my point, and show her how exposed she was, I showed her how much info I found about her, and her husband, online...for free...for anyone to see. Needless to say, there were several teary-eyed moments.

    This story reminds us of human nature, and the state of society. Today, someone only needs to suspect you of something, and bad things start to happen. Let me say it this way: if someone only accuses you of something, you will be watched, blocked, censored, or otherwise disrupted. This accusation can be completely baseless, but compliant, government regulated industries, like banking HAVE to respond. 

Just like calling the police on someone. They have to respond to every call, and the report becomes public record.

    I promise you, Sophia and Sal are people you’d invite into your home. You’d ask them to watch your children. But...it’s just unfortunate when people get suspicious or jealous for no reason. Sophia is a good person with “nothing to hide.” But, we cannot control the actions of other people. We have to protect ourselves by removing the possibility of anyone taking action against us.

    They suspected her of money laundering. This is because they looked up all her, and her husband’s, real estate holdings, ran her credit, saw she had no mortgages (she actually has private loans). They went to the authorities, who eventually “tapped” her phone. She had a regular cell phone plan, with all her real information, and cell phone companies ALWAYS comply with a police order, whether someone is guilty or not.

    Needless to say, the atmosphere at job was tense, giving her a tremendous sense of fear and paranoia. She cried for months. The lawyer they spoke with was very straightforward, explaining the politics of their situation: they can sue, but it won’t go anywhere. The bank’s management was friends with all local law enforcement, and even if they won the lawsuit, it’s not as if she wanted to keep her job there. After several months of this, she resigned from that job. As she told me this story, you can still see the pain she carries from this experience.  She left that job, but the scars still hurt.

    If you were to meet Sophia, you’ll see she doesn’t have a single malicious bone in her body. She’s a good person, and although she has “street smarts” from living in the city, she was open and transparent with her employer, never thinking her immaculate career and integrity would be in question.

    Even if we never have a malicious thought in our mind, we cannot predict the emotions, thoughts or behavior of other people. I explained to Sophia that if she had a properly secured, and private phone, there would be nothing for the police to “tap” into. If she set up her real estate more privately, and consulted with me about things, the story would have ended differently.

    I explained to her how important it is to protect our private information because although she felt she had “nothing to hide” that didn’t prevent other people from thinking she did! She was “too good” at her job, making her less qualified coworkers thinking they were working with Bernie Madoff! All her and her husband wanted to do was grow a good business, move out of the city and live a better life.

Names have been changed to protect privacy.