cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

PM SMS Question

brettster99
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I been wondering for a long time now about public mobile and Telus network in terms of privacy. 

Using SMS and Calling can be intercepted and was wondering but data does PM collect in terms of usage? And is there any plans my PM or Telus to improve network security so that it’s not stupid easy to intercept messages? 

I probably already know the answer to this but wanted to get the PM community help related to this 

3 REPLIES 3

Korth
Mayor / Maire

(P.S. I you want secure SMS then ditch your phone's built in texting app and install Signal SMS.)

All wireless communications can be intercepted. Your signal isn't just moving from your device to the nearest tower, it's omnidirectional, it ignores property lines, it travels through walls. Anyone anywhere in range can, in theory, eavesdrop or manipulate those communications. And whatever kind of protocols, encodings. or encryptions your phone might use are hardly "secure" at all, everyone else with a smartphone already has all the decoding stuff they need built into it. Radio-based communications are inherently unsecure - don't believe any authorities who promise otherwise - but you simply have to accept it as is or select an alternative.

 

Public Mobile uses Telus network. They almost certainly implement physical security on their station sites and the landlines which link the stations together. Partly because that hardware is so expensive and it needs to keep operating correctly if they want to stay in business, gotta keep the thieves and vandals out, gotta keep those insurance payments down. And partly because they are obligated to prevent eavesdropping or manipulation of public communications, they don't wanna get embarrassed or sued. And partly because they are stringently obligated to provide secure and reliable communications for certain clients (like the machinery of government, emergency services, etc) which must be resistant to monitoring and interference, which must consistently deliver several nines of uptime.

 

I expect that whatever security measures they've implemented - physical, technical, and legal - are not going to be proudly advertised in public domain, not in specific detail anyhow. Because these countermeasures obviously wouldn't be as effective against informed and prepared attackers. But PM/Telus is of course a business, not a military corps, they must make bang for the buck decisions which strike some reasonable balance between useless cheap padlock and overkill 24/7 armed security patrols.

 

The Privacy & Legal link at the bottom of this page offers links to a Public Mobile privacy page, which links to a Telus privacy page, which has a bunch of "informative" legal babble and a link to the lofty but meaningless Office Of The Privacy Commissioner Of Canada.


@brettster99 wrote:

I been wondering for a long time now about public mobile and Telus network in terms of privacy. 

Using SMS and Calling can be intercepted and was wondering but data does PM collect in terms of usage? And is there any plans my PM or Telus to improve network security so that it’s not stupid easy to intercept messages? 

I probably already know the answer to this but wanted to get the PM community help related to this 


Public Mobile's policies are stated at https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/privacy-policy

Need Help? Let's chat.