Is cell phone tapping really possible?

My dad recently asked me to settle an argument between him and my mom. My mom said she heard on the news that "it is now possible, when your cell phone is in the on position, to listen in from anywhere. This includes 'sitting in' on board meetings and stealing company secrets if one of the participants has his or her cell phone on the table in the on position." My dad, on the other hand, doesn't buy a bit of this.

When my dad first emailed this to me, I laughed at how preposterous this sounded. I was halfway through replying to my dad's email to tell him he could claim victory over my mom in the argument when I thought I at least owed it to my mom to look into this.

That's when I found this: Tapping your cell phone.

The video link above is a report from WTHR, Indianapolis's local NBC affiliate. I wish I could embed the video right here in my blog but WTHR has chosen to not allow video embedding for the video. Take the time to follow the link and come back here. It's just over 5 minutes long and well worth watching.

Does the video really prove that cell phone tapping is possible?

Now, if you've watched the video you are probably applauding my mom for sticking to her guns about this all being true. And while I'm all for people applauding for my mom (I know I will be this coming Sunday), let me make one clarification about what is said in this video.

In order to do all of the eavesdropping type things mentioned in the video, a person has to install a piece of software on someone else's phone in order to enable all of these features. Without this spy software, I go back to standing my ground that most, if not all, of the things mentioned in the video are not possible, or at least not available to Joe Public.

So yes, it appears you can listen in on someone's phone, track their movements and even read their text messages but you need to install the spy software on their phone first. So the real lesson in the video is to keep tabs on your cell phone at all times.

Not so practical advice

And I don't agree with the advice at the end of the video that says you should keep your phone powered off whenever you aren't using it and to dislodge the battery. While this may be good advice if you are in a highly confidential meeting with someone, it's simply impractical to do this on a daily basis. And besides, you can't receive incoming calls when your cell phone is powered off.

One final word on this subject. Mom and dad, you're both right.