One of our editors tried it out, and was able to track members of his family without them knowing (UPDATE: Text messages were sent to the tracked phones, but notably not a single person who received them understood what they meant and ignored them)—and without his knowing the master password to the AT&T account. You just create a separate login for the service and voila. AT&T says in that case, the master account will be notified—by SMS, email and snail mail, with information on how to revoke the other person's permission to track numbers.

When Boy Genius tried it, they tracked phones totally silently, that is, without the phones receiving any indication of being observed. AT&T's policy states they'll be sent a notification once a month. Also, BGR mentioned that the service was able to access GPS position data on phones that had GPS—it wasn't just triangulating the phones using cell towers.

In consideration of privacy and healthy communication among family members, I think maybe AT&T should make sure the people being tracked know it very, very clearly, and I think that only the account holder(s) should be able to decide who gets tracked, like with other family tracking plans we've seen from Verizon and Sprint. And just remember this, sometimes not knowing is better. [AT&T via Boy Genius; AT&T's FAQ with Privacy Policy]

This Orwellian nightmare center would obviously take a while to get put together, and it's not clear exactly what it'll consist of or how it'll be put together. The folks behind it have, however, figured out a way to push it through without requiring approval by parliament.

Sources said secret briefings revealed the cost of the database would run to nine figures and has already been factored into government spending plans. The IMP budget was part of the intelligence agencies' undisclosed allocation in the Comprehensive Spending Review last year. In an answer to a parliamentary question on 8 July, the Home Office refused to provide any budgetary details, citing national security concerns.

A Communications Data Bill mandating the database was expected to be proposed before the summer parliamentary recess, but did not appear. It had been planned that the database would be bundled with the EU Data Retention Directive (EUDRD), which must be enshrined in UK law by March 2009.

However, last week the government released a consultation paper on transposing the Directive as a standalone statutory instrument. Laws made by statutory instrument do not require a vote in Parliament.

Well, I guess the silver lining here is that all this garbage going on in the UK is making the US seem like a shining beacon of freedom and privacy. Which is not a good sign for you poor Brits. [The Register]

Why did Intelius develop a cell directory?
The trend of Americans increasingly relying on their cell phones as their only method of telecommunication was compelling, and indicated that consumers were transitioning away from land lines en masse. If that were the case, we believed consumers would need many of the same tools widely available to landline users, such as a cell-based white pages service (our directory) to keep them connected and enable their friends, colleagues and classmates to be able to keep in touch with them in an increasingly transient society.

The indicators for market demand for such a service were strong: In 2005, according to one In-Stat report, 43% of phone users nationwide were considering switching to mobile phones as their primary phone, but only 1 in 20 adults lived in wireless-only households. By 2006, that number had grown to 1 in 10. During the first six months of 2007, 1 out of every 8 adults inhabited a cell-only household. And with approximately 200,000 American households moving daily, it was clear to us that consumers were likely struggling to stay connected with a network of friends and family members who continued to move nationwide.

Early adopters likely to be the key demographic for the product: "Early adopters" of new services often fall in the 30 and under age group. Importantly to us, the National Center for Health Statistics reported 30% of adults age 18 to 29 have only a wireless phone, more than double the number of those over age 30 who rely only on a cell phone. This segment of the population, we believed, would likely be the first users of our service when we launched it as a test product a few months ago.

Telemarketers a non-issue: We recognized that telemarketing calls to cell phones would be a non-issue, as we planned never to sell cell numbers in bulk to businesses. Moreover, a federal law already exists prohibiting telemarketers to call cell phones, which supported by the Do Not Call Registry makes a strong statement against such practices.

Price Point as a Barrier: The price point of the product was set to make it difficult for someone to randomly buy phone numbers for people they don't know. Our thinking was that if someone is going to pay $15 for a phone number, they likely know who they're calling. Again, we never sold these numbers in bulk and we did a velocity check to ensure no customer purchased more than a few numbers for personal use.

Intelius Listens to Customers; Pulls the Plug on Cell Phone Directory Service

Company's Popular Cell Phone Caller ID Service Still Allows Customers to Identify Unrecognized Numbers for Personal Safety

BELLEVUE, WA — February 01, 2008 — In response to consumer feedback, Intelius Inc., a company that empowers consumers and businesses with information for intelligent decisions, today announced that it has discontinued its search by name cell phone directory service. Intelius launched the cell phone directory in recent months as a test for the first-of-its-kind resource.

"As a company, we have strived to be at the forefront of innovation," said Liz Murray, Communications Manager at Intelius. "We realize that in this instance we may have been ahead of our time. Wireless carriers attempted to develop a similar product a few years ago and found the market wasn't ready; it's clear that the market is still not ready. We always listen carefully to our customers, which is why we recently discontinued our cell phone directory."

In keeping with the company's mission to empower consumers with information services for personal and family safety, Intelius continues to offer a Cell Phone Caller ID service (reverse search). This service works much like the caller ID consumers are familiar with on their home phones. Cell Phone Caller ID allows a customer to input a number that has shown up on their home or cell phone into the Intelius site and receive basic information associated with that number. Consumers can use this service to protect themselves from harassing calls, hang-ups, pranks, or mystery calls into their children or other family members.

"We believe that consumers have a right to know who's calling them. Our Cell Phone Caller ID service is a natural extension of our personal safety and information services, and we believe it is a critical tool to prevent the creation of a safe-harbor for harassers, predators, telemarketers and pranksters," Murray explains. "We are firmly committed to providing consumers positive, proactive ways to help them protect their personal safety and obtain peace of mind."

Perhaps a hearing aid might do the same thing...? Maybe so, but it won't cost any $79.95 like this does. Anyway, both the earpiece and base unit are rechargeable, able to give you hours of snooping hijinks. Just don't be disappointed when you discover those people across the room aren't talking about you. – Charlie White

Rechargeable M-7 Secret Agent Spy Ear [Gadget Universe]