[LINK] Theophanus sexual assault case and text messages

[Tom Koltai]

Unfortunately the interception Act requires the storage of those
messages by the originating carrier - I have posted some links.

http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm-agd-tiactreview2005.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill/tab2004440/
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/tab2004440/memo1.html
http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/senTIAsub.doc

Regretably, what is not disclosed at any of the hearings is the fact
that the Telcos store the contents of your sim cards.
At first this was seen as a valuable service - i.e.: if you lost your
phone - when you were issued with your new sim card - all the numbers
magically appeared - as did the stored (saved) sms messages.

The mobile manufacturers then introduced an option to save to phone. So
numbers saved to phone and NOT to sim card are safe from external
scrutiny. Unfortunately sms and mms is stored to card.

An option is to use Yahoo/google servies to send your sms'es under a
pseudonym.

Tom
> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Jan Whitaker
> Sent: Sunday, 25 January 2009 11:56 AM
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: [LINK] Theophanus sexual assault case and text messages
> 
<snip>
He also says people do not realise the extent to which police can 
check text messages. "Every single text message you've sent and 
received for the last three years can be traced and I ask you a 
simple question: How many people in the world can stand the scrutiny 
of having every one of their text messages over the last three years
examined?
--

Is this true without a warrant to actually capture those messages? 
Are all messages completely stored at the telco? Or is it just the 
fact that a text message was sent to/from a number and not the actual 
text content?

Jan
<snip>