Another question for you guys!

[sholio]

I'm passing along this one from my sister, for something she's writing. She asked me this question, and I didn't know, but I said I could ask on my LJ (DW), so here I am!

I'll just quote her:

"I know that with many voice mail systems you can access them from any phone. I'm assuming this is true for cell voice mail as well. So if you're feeling paranoid, and have ditched your phone, you can still check your voice mail. You're afraid people are tracking your calls, and they can certainly see who has called YOU (even with no phone, the voice mail box would still exist). But could they track your calls INTO your mailbox to check your messages? I'm assuming yes, but I don't really know how that works."

So ... what do you guys think? My experience with cell phones is kind of limited, but I'm not actually sure if you can check it from another phone like you can with an answering machine. But can you? Or could the government or a suitably well-connected extra-governmental entity do it?

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/320824.html with comments.

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Not that familiar with cell phones myself, but it depends on the phone - in Japan my cell phone's voice mail was on the phone itself; if it was off or our of range, you couldn't leave messages on it. (more like an answering machine than voicemail, really). My cell phone now has an external voicemail box, somewhere on Sprint's servers; I call into it through my phone and enter a passcode to access it, and I can do it from other phones, too - I call my phone's number, and when the voicemail answers I can hit asterisk and my passcode to access the voicemail.

If you were bugging someone's phone or whatever, and got the number/passcode of their voicemail when they called it, then I think you could access the phone's voicemail, yeah?

[sholio]

Aha! That's the big issue, I think -- whether the mail is stored on the phone (in which case, just turning it off should remove the problem) or stored on a central server, where anyone could access it if they could get the information. Thank you!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I call an outside number from my cellphone to access my voicemail. I believe I can call that number from another phone and supply a passcode (which I don't actually know >.<) to access it if I needed to. I don't think that my phone itself would record that such a call had been made, seeing as it doesn't tell me about calls I've missed when my phone is off, and considering that it would be a call that doesn't involve the phone itself.

However, an appropriately well connected entity could certainly monitor even an off-site voicemail server for activity by account and see that it had been checked and from what number. They'd just need access to the service provider's records.

[sholio]

Thank you very much! I'll pass it along. :)

[writerjc.livejournal.com]

I, too, dial a voice mail server to check voice mail. Even if my phone is turned off/out of juice - folks can still leave a message and I can still check them from another phone as long as I know the voice mail server's phone number.

I am pretty sure that they can tell that you've called in and checked your voice mail from another phone, but I don't know that they can necessarily tell which phone number you called into the server to actually check your messages. That voice mail server number gets gazillions of calls a day. They would need to know exactly what time you called and sort you out from the rest of the people who were calling in to check their messages at the same time.

Also, if the person calling in to check their voice mail was was really paranoid, they could put on a disguise and call in and check their messages from a payphone (if they could find one), or check from a burner phone.

[sholio]

Thank you for the info! I'll pass it along - and that's a good suggestion about the anonymous checking too.

[parmalokwen.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/ is a really awesome place for asking all kinds of research questions.

[sholio]

Thank you! I've actually encountered little_details before, but I had completely forgotten about it, so I'll send her a link. :)