Where are all our texts stored (and who gets to read them)??

PullMyFinger!

I was thinking ....... (not something I like doing a whole lot of on Sundays), are all our texts stored for legal/gorverment reasons anywhere and who gets to read them?

Kevin_rc_ie

they're stored on the sim card in your handset and are read by whoever reads them on your handset. anything else i'm not sure of.

Tar.Aldarion

anyway to get missing text that doesnt update? goddamn txt!

Sparky

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

anyway to get missing text that doesnt update? goddamn txt!

Ask sender to resend, thats the only way

Shrimp

I'd say they are on some temp buffer server. Nothing long term I'd say. Thatd even if that exists.

Woulda thought, perhaps naively so, that there would be some storage of them somewhere by the service providers so that if abusive texts were sent, they could be proved by the company (if the person got sick of them and just deleted them).

Whole lot of ifs and buts there. Meh, what do I know..

Sparky

Shrimp wrote:

I'd say they are on some temp buffer server. Nothing long term I'd say. Thatd even if that exists.

they are held in a message server hosted by whatever network you are on you can also set a time for your message to live aswell such as 2, 5 or 12 hrs or infinity, where as once the mesage has been recieved by the persons who you were sending it to, it is then deleted from the server the only trace is the date and time it was sent for billing records.

like wise if the message has'nt been received by what ever hours you let it to live it is then deleted from the server and your not charged for it.

PullMyFinger!

Myth wrote:

Woulda thought, perhaps naively so, that there would be some storage of them somewhere by the service providers so that if abusive texts were sent, they could be proved by the company (if the person got sick of them and just deleted them).

Whole lot of ifs and buts there. Meh, what do I know..

Thats what I was thinking as well. They have to be stored somewhere. Maybe even so companies can build a profile on you from the nature of them. Big brother really is watching

PullMyFinger!

PullMyFinger! wrote:

Big brother really is watching

Wave to the nice people. Blow them kisses...

PullMyFinger!

Sparky_S wrote:

they are held in a message server hosted by whatever network you are on you can also set a time for your message to live aswell such as 2, 5 or 12 hrs or infinity, where as once the mesage has been recieved by the persons who you were sending it to, it is then deleted from the server the only trace is the date and time it was sent for billing records.

like wise if the message has'nt been received by what ever hours you let it to live it is then deleted from the server and your not charged for it.

I dont doubt your knowledge but I think there's more to it then that. If our phones are basically now devices that can trace us anywhere we need to be tracked down to then Id say texts are kept as well, especially ones with any "flagged" words (Im not gonig to type them here in case the CIA kick my door down )

Sparky

PullMyFinger! wrote:

Thats what I was thinking as well. They have to be stored somewhere. Maybe even so companies can build a profile on you from the nature of them. Big brother really is watching

cant, thats invasion of privacy, unless you ask for the service, i think there is a company somewhere (not in ireland) that you set your message center number to theirs and they hold the messages for up to a year for you, but this is a service you pay a slight premium for.

there should be an option like on emails to leave the message on the server, this would have to be an end user executed service.

derek27

about 6 months ago, i got a message to my phone. it was very long and included dates, the phone number i sent it to, the text of the message and a whole load of other stuff which makes no sense like random numbers and letters etc. it was a message i had sent to somebody about 3 months prior to that. they had mistakenly sent it back to me along with all the other stuff that they add on i reckon. so they must be storing them somewhere. btw, the person i sent the message to got it when i sent it too.

PullMyFinger!

Sparky_S wrote:

cant, thats invasion of privacy,

But it happens anyway doesnt it? Emails are read and phones are tapped every day belonging to everyday people, ok maybe not the latter in Ireland but definitely the former. Gmail didnt make "never delete an email again" such a big point of their service for nothing

monkeyfudge

PullMyFinger! wrote:

I dont doubt your knowledge but I think there's more to it then that. If our phones are basically now devices that can trace us anywhere we need to be tracked down to then Id say texts are kept as well, especially ones with any "flagged" words (Im not gonig to type them here in case the CIA kick my door down )

Yeah. They're only allowed to keep information on you for billing purposes.

Ha.. Can you imagine someone having the job in the CIA to have to read through everyones text messages?

It's a shame that they aren't all archived somewhere, all that great human literature is being lost forever...

Shrimp

I know they keep a log of the texts.. such as the time, date and size, and who it was from / to.. but the actual content I dont know if they do. What about picture mesages, surly they could have found out who originally sent that under-age pornorgaphic picture around a while back? and anyother illigal activities..

Sparky

yeah "ill b home l8r" that some literature

Riamfada

A while ago a mate was in a spot of bother and the gards got records of the last three months of sent and recieved messages from 02. So there ya go. They are stored. In a big box in the back of the 02 office

Benster

There is no facility for storing the content of messages sent via text message, at least in vodafone anyway. The volume is just too great (> 5 mill / day). As was said above, they store the bare details of each message, send time, sender number, destination number etc and they keep them for min 6 months. With all that info, it amounts to some of the biggest databases I've ever seen.

seamus

Moved.

Dave

I remember listening to a "Fix it Friday" one morning and this very question was asked. Ray got a guy, from O2 I think, and he said that they do keep the contents of all the text messages they get for around 6 months.

PullMyFinger!

Grimes wrote:

A while ago a mate was in a spot of bother and the gards got records of the last three months of sent and recieved messages from 02. So there ya go. They are stored. In a big box in the back of the 02 office

So it would seem that O2 store the text as a whole but Vodafone dont?


Seamus: As I said to you in PM (but need to defend it here also) there was no other "offences" in the past. I asked you for examples, you hadnt got any.

28064212

Sparky_S wrote:

like wise if the message has'nt been received by what ever hours you let it to live it is then deleted from the server and your not charged for it.

I think you are charged for it. At least you used to be. Once a message is sent, it counts