While you’re worried about Facebook and Twitter vacuuming up some your personal data when you use Social Media, in your pocket or purse, you’re carrying around the most sophisticated human Tracking and data mining device ever invented.

Your Smart Phone.

Via Bloomberg: Stingray Devices in Washington Aren’t Alone in Spying on Phones

Spies Tracking Our Phones? Don’t Be So Shocked
The discovery of “stingray” devices in Washington is a reminder of how much data we’re giving away.

The press has been in a lather of late over reports that the Department of Homeland Security had discovered evidence that cellphone tracking tools were being used by “unauthorized” parties in and around Washington. Formally known as International Mobile Subscriber Identity catchers, and often called stingrays, 1  these devices fool your phone’s baseband into believing it is in contact with a cell tower. IMSI catchers can use your phone’s signal to track your movements and contacts. In some cases they might persuade your phone to turn off its encryption. It’s a powerful, scary technology. Scarier still, federal officials admit that although they can detect the devices, they can’t find them. Still, here are three reasons that the excitement over the news from Washington is a little overdone.

The truth is that the technical documents to build these “Cell Tower Mimicking” devices has been available in the darker corners of the internet for YEARS. There are countless home brew “Stingray” type software as well as home brew hardware (such as the Raspberry PI) devices capable of intercepting your Cellular phone conversations, data, location info … along with the plethora of other data that the Telcos have been vacuuming up from their customers for even more years.

The simple fact is that people will choose convenience over privacy … every time.