Mobile phone text reader???

[brightwell]

Ex has bought dd a contract mobile, (vodaphone) she's run up a big bill he's now telling her he's got a text reader on it and says as he's the bill payer he can look at all the texts sh'es received & sent. Is this possible, she's sick with worry.

No such thing!! My dad works in tele comms, the only people that can retreive txts are super geeky government peeps that have warrants. As the billpayer he can see how many...has DS cross wires?

Sorry meant DD x

There is an o2 thing called bluebook where this is possible, im not sure for vodafone.

No, he cannot get access to the content of them, but as bill payer, he can probably get itemised bill showing who she calls and sends texts to.

Content is private and while the security services (MI5/6) can probably get audio and text content, it would be pretty difficult without formal permission from a judge, so it's most likely just to scare to limit the cost (but depending on age of daughter, might make her feel worse about anything embarrassing she had discussed with girl friends!)

Clearly the highest used /cost numbers will be easy to spot, though hopefully they won't get any annoying text messages from Ex.

Yes O2 has a bluebook which stores all sent and received texts, contents too. Maybe vodaphone has something similar.

Scorps, 'bluebook' surely won't show content - or if it does I'd expect 'Liberty' having a go about it...

Have just glanced at O2 site and see it's a backup for your directory, messages, and backup your photos but it seems to be an "opt in" thing, and surely locked to that particular number, so if the phone was stolen, you'd need a new phone and SIM (and be given the same number) and then be able to retrieve from the last time you saved all items.

But it would not allow (unless they're incredibly insecure) someone else to download all your info into their phone on a different number - would make stalking and other privacy problems more easy for perpetrators to do.

it does show content - i can see everything my husband sends and recieves via SMS.

it is opt in, yes. You 'sign up', get a verication code sent to your mobile,which you enter over the internet, and then it works.

Yep agree, had it myself when I was o2 as did dp.

OK, you live and learn. Thanks for the explanation

I guess there's a chance that someone could do this before handing over the phone. Worth remembering if ever one is given a phone on O2!

A good thing this phone is on Vodafone then !!

He's obviously trying to see her texts, she keeps getting a verification code sent to her mobile and now he's asking her for the code. ooops looks like she's going to be in trouble.

Just don't give him the code; he can't see anything without it. plus he can't see any backdated anyway; just what she has sent/received since the code is entered iyswim.

I'm sorry if this seems out of order, but what the hell?

I can understand the scare tactic and can understand that he would want to try to limit the txts if she's really going over the allowance but to make a point of seeing the content of a young girl's phone!!!!?????

My Dad gave me the whole why so many and keep it to your limit or you'll have to pay (and I did have to too) but he wouldn't dream of requesting my phone. Perhaps it's just me but is there anyone else who thinks there are certain things that Dads just don't do? If my Dad thought there was something to check up on it would be my Mom that would do it...obviously this depends on DD's age but I'm assuming late primary/early secondary due to even having a phone anyway.

dd is 15 and has a 17year old boyfriend. I suspect he's trying to find out what they're up to. Also she recently sent me texts slagging her dad & his partner off when she was annoyed with them both. And yes I would hope her dad would respect her privacy but sadly he's not a decent person.

does anyone know how many months/days worth of texts are stored and that can retrieved. I don't want him seeing texts that I've sent her.

Brightwell - i'm just browsing the voda website and I really can't find anything similar to the bluebook on o2. He can however, manage the bill and get call and txt summaries. I don't think there's anything to worry about in that sense. And as in prev posts I think the system only stores info from the time you sign up, it won't recall past history.

I'd be inclined to hand the damned phone back and get her one myself so that it wouldn't be any of his business. My contract only costs £20 and that's with 800mins anytime and unlimited txts. Had to buy the phone seperately but it's worth it for the deal I got.

brightwell - there may be another reason for verification code, which concerns tracking a mobile (from what I've heard, you could use the internet to show a map with various locations when the phone had been 'interrogated').

I don't have any web links for these services, but again, without entering the verification code, it doesn't work - in the case of monitoring, the chap I heard on radio said that his service sent out regular reminders/warnings that monitoring of location was active {though the complaint was that monitoring might be active for days before the phone user got one of these messages}.

I will see if I can find some web links to UK services offering tracking... Oh dear, found about half a dozen so have not checked them all, yet.

On vodafone there's a service called ZYB which allows for backing up messages etc, but as I'm not a customer, don't know how close this comes to 'bluebook' on O2.

Seems a bit creepy, must admit, and like njmomof1, can see wanting to limit costs, but not pry into content.

Who was that deal with, please, njmomof1, since it might help others!

Thanks for the info everyone, so far she's ignoring her dad's calls but obviously she's worried. We'll have to see what the weekend brings.

Yep it only stores from when you sign up to bluebook but after that it stores EVERYTHING, including photos.

Give the phone back and give her a PAYG one that she has to top up for anything over and above a certain amount each month.

Crumbs, Jodie - that sounds so, so, big brotherish that if teenagers become aware it may put them off touching O2 phones even if they are gifts with a parent paying portion/all monthly costs.

I have potentially hundreds of e-mail addresses, not because I am doing anything illegal, but if some spook ever wanted to track my incoming/outgoing mail I'd certainly make them earn their salary. Using a free service called spamgourmet(.com) you can set up a new mail address for every site that asks for registration, each address unique, and none showing which ISP you use or where the e-mail goes after it gets to spamgourmet...

(It forwards mail up to a certain limit on the number of messages, unless you 'white list' a domain or particular e-mail addresses, and simply gobbles the rest - so cuts down on any spam that gets to you... if some site sells your e-mail address to other firms, then you might get a few unexpected messages, but once the limit {max 20} is reached you'd have to reset the counter, or it would gobble the rest... of course if you classed messages as unwanted, you just let it carry on gobbling the spam mail).