Mark Suppelsa's Closer Look

Text Message Privacy

Text messaging is booming. More and more cell phone users are tapping away... and not just teenagers. In Mark's Closer Look tonight, how your text messages can take on lives of their own.

What do Kobe Bryant and soccer star David Beckham have in common? Their text messages became key evidence in their sex scandals. Tonight, text message privacy. My Closer Look at what happens to those messages you send.

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Remember when cell phones were just used for calls? Now, they're mobile messaging machines. Every day, fast-fingered customers send millions of text messages through their phones. And while many use their thumbs to type out rapid reminders; it's all too tempting to get into conversations, true confessions, even arguments.

Fine and good, except -- did you know that cell companies keep those things?

"It's a lot like e-mail. When you delete an e-mail, you think it's gone--out of sight, out of mind. But that's not the case," says John Walls, who speaks for America's cell phone companies.

"They keep those messages on hand for billing purposes, if you have a question about 'Did I send that message?' 'Yes, you did send it' or 'No you didn't, we made a mistake and we're going to correct that.' "

But why would they keep the message itself? The words you typed, or the picture you sent? U.S. Cellular cites customer service. Its website lets you read old messages and view your pictures.

"If there's a network outage of some type and people say, 'Hey, re-transmit those to me, I haven't had an opportunity to open them,' it's a customer service issue."

It's also become a tool for law enforcement. The Army used text messages to court-martial Ryan Anderson. He thought he was selling secrets to Al Qaeda, but was really writing to undercover agents. Kobe Bryant's defense attorneys were able to read text messages sent by his accuser, in the hours after she says she was raped.

These strings of letters and numbers are being pulled off phone company computers and used in courtrooms across America: a murder case in Oregon, a kidnapping in Missouri, in Los Angeles, a city hall corruption probe.

In other words, scenes like this --
"You've got two months of text messages in this file?"
"I do, if you've got a warrant."
-- aren't only happening on television dramas.

It's not nosy; it's actually the law. And police aren't the only ones who can get court orders. Divorce lawyers are using text messages to prove infidelity. One school principal used them to bust students who cheated on exams.

"Probably the biggest lesson is 'keep your nose clean,' " says Walls.

But phone companies say you shouldn't worry about "just anyone" grabbing messages out of thin air: they're safely encrypted.

"There is no other means, no other way to go about receiving or obtaining that kind of information concerning a customer's account," Walls explains.

Just how long do these messages stick around? We surveyed Chicago's most popular cell phone companies. T-Mobile told us it doesn't save messages at all. AT&T holds them for three days. U.S. Cellular, for five. Cingular stores messages for a week. Verizon waits ten days. And Sprint PCS? A whopping two weeks.

None of the companies said their contracts or privacy policies address the issue. A U.S. Cellular spokesman said it's posted on the company's website. But even he admits: it's not very clear.

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Some obvious questions come to mind. Does this mean employees of wireless companies can browse your messages at will? Not really. The companies have strict passwords and watch for potential snoops.

But on the flip side, even though a company says it gets rid of messages after a week or two, some high profile cases prove: they're rarely erased. Prosecutors have successfully subpoenaed text messages off company hard drives that were months old.

© Fox Television Stations, Inc. All rights reserved.

Crackdown on Cable Theft

It's often a punchline in sitcoms and movies, but stealing cable or satellite TV can have serious consequences. Dozens of Chicagoans have learned that first hand. They've been hauled into court by the "cable police."

The cable companies say at least one in ten of us finds a way to get pay TV for free -- costing the industry $6 billion per year and forcing everyone's rates to go up. Fox Chicago's Mark Suppelsa takes a Closer Look at how companies catch cable and satellite pirates.

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"The signal's getting stronger as I go towards, towards where we connect here," says Comcast technician Ed Mroz. A high-pitched tone leads him to pay dirt.

"Alright, this guy really went out of his way here," says Mroz as he comes across an illegal cable connection, hidden under the grass. "He couldn't get into the box, so he took measures, went right into our cable source and he did it that way. He didn't do his connections correctly, and this is how we find them."

Comcast crews drive through neighborhoods, looking for telltale leaks. Clumsy thieves let television signals out, when they plug in. Those signals can interfere with police and fire radios, even aircraft communications.

"This all affects you. When you notice your Internet speeds aren't as good, this is a part of it," says Mroz. In one south suburban building, he finds four illegal connections. Purple tags mean he's been there before.

"Last year alone, we inspected 3.4 million addresses," says Comcast Security Director Peter Hurst. A one-time suburban police chief, Hurst now runs the "cable police." A team of sixty men and women who've cut off some 50,000 creative connections this year alone.

"It's pretty staggering. Not only for Chicago, but nationally," says Hurst.

Hurst remembers one woman who plugged in every night and disconnected again before bed -- hoping the cable company wouldn't find her. "That went on for several weeks," he says. "She was literally attaching the fitting to the port at the time our investigator walked out."

Where'd she slip up? Bragging to her neighbors. "We'll get the couple that's getting divorced, the ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, people like that, friends who are now enemies, they'll call seeking some type of revenge," Hurst explains.

Sometimes anonymous tipsters do more than just pick up the phone. "They actually took a digital photograph of a father and son standing at the utility pole," says Hurst. "The father's on an aluminum ladder, which is dangerous to begin with."

This game of cat and mouse can also be dangerous for the technicians investigating city alleys and suburban backyards. Hurst tells us how one technician "looked down to see an older woman in a nightgown with a firearm cocked. She says, 'Do not.. disconnect.. that cable line!'"

Cases like those go to prosecutors. But the cable company takes its own action against people who use so-called "black boxes" to steal a signal.

"Last time we checked the Internet," says Hurst, "there were 25,000 listings." He's talking about websites advertising descramblers and converters to help you get pay TV for free.

First, they shut down the distributors. Like one in Nebraska that was literally underground, in a family's basement. The cable companies take invoices and credit card receipts, which lead them to the people buying these devices for their homes.

"We notified these customers that we were aware of it. They were cooperative and surrendered the box," says Hurst.

I ask him whether 'all would be forgotten' if customers turned in their illegal boxes and started paying for service. "Absolutely. Yes, exactly," he replies.

Not quite. Comcast also threatens to sue customers suspected of using "black boxes," unless they pay a few thousand dollars as a fine.

"Your job is to collect money. Do whatever you can do to collect money," says attorney Ted Scudder--quoting the marching orders one investigator says he got from DirecTV. That company, partly owned by Fox's parent company, has sued 25,000 people. Scudder defended a dozen of them here in Chicago.

"There's no direct evidence that anybody saw them actually put a stolen signal on a TV set, display it," says Scudder. "All they have is the argument 'well, they must have known what they were doing.' "

Hurst disagrees. "There's no other purpose for this box other than to receive our programming in an unauthorized manner," he says.

This year, Comcast sued 60 customers from Lockport to Libertyville. Some of them told us they were bullied into settling, even though they claim their black boxes never worked.

I asked Scudder if they aren't just as guilty as pirates who successfully steal signals.

"Some things are legal to have, even though they can be used illegally," he replied.

"This is about as obvious as it can get right here," says technician Mroz. Outside the courtroom, it looks more clear-cut. Comcast hopes to unplug these cable pirates -- for good. "This is the kind of constant uphill battle we fight every year," Mroz explains.

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DirecTV says it's "ridiculous" to claim it's making a profit off its crackdown. A spokesman says the company loses money on lawyers' fees and only tracks down cheats to send a message.

We talked with a handful of people caught with black boxes. They all admitted buying them. But only one man admitted using the device. These folks ultimately settled with Comcast for about $3,000 each. That's a high price to pay for a gizmo that costs about $200.

© Fox Television Stations, Inc. All rights reserved.