We live in an increasingly mobile computing world and as a result more and more of our daily affairs are ending up on things like our mobile phones. Everything from text messages to myriad bits of personal information.

Here’s the thing though – all those text messages you thought you deleted. Well they may not be as deleted as you might have thought and all that other private information – well it turns out it may not be as private as you thought. At least so say Kim Khor, director of Khor Willis & Associates an Australian mobile forensics company found on the speed dial of police departments and corporations.

Khor with the help of a device the shape of a hockey puck and costing $25,000 can retrieve those secret text messages that you thought you had deleted from your mobile phone even after five years.

Keen to find out more The Sunday Telegraph tested their abilities last week.

We provided Mr Coulthart with an old SIM card, found in the bottom of a friend’s drawer and an eight-month-old iPhone to discover what information they could find.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

Mr Coulthart inserted the seven-year-old SIM card into his forensic device and was able to scroll through hundreds of messages, including a “Merry Christmas” from December 25, 2005.

“From this SIM card I can see messages, many deleted, back to July, 2005,” Mr Coulthart said.

He ascertained the owner’s date of birth, home address, brother’s name and high school attended _ all from deleted messages.

“Often when messages are deleted from the handset they are sent to the SIM card, and as long as there is space on the card they are still accessible to a hacker,” Mr Coulthart said.

With Bluetooth and infrared to access information from a mobile phone at a distance, the $25,000 forensic device is the law-enforcement tool of choice, he said.

The men then uploaded information from a newer iPhone, affording easy access to the contacts book, SMS messages and photos.

Mr Khor said: “We used an email address gathered from the phone to find a Facebook profile and confirm the `friends’ accounts, thereby finding, for example, a photo of the owner’s sister.

“In 10 minutes we found a fair amount of personal information about the family and the owner online.”

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Isn’t technology grand?

Related posts:

1. 4.1 Billion text messages sent every day in the US
2. Public Records Regularly Deleted, Report Says
3. Get $150 From Text-Spam Settlement

If approved, the technology would eventually be implemented into new vehicles. The goal would be to let officers easily halt stolen cars or getaway vehicles, without having to resort to high-speed chases.

Right now, law enforcers are looking at how they could adapt a number of different systems, some of which are already commercially available to drivers.

“If the police service can use technology to its benefit to improve policing and ensure it is far safer for both police officers and members of the public, then ultimately we should applaud those developments,” a Police Review spokesperson tells the Telegraph.

Maybe so — but do you want any officer to hold the power to control your car so easily, at his own discretion?

Just askin’.

Related posts:

1. UK Police Officer sues over beard discrimination….must stop laughing
2. Cops too busy eating donuts to protect police stations
3. YouTube Being Used To Catch Police Pranksters

In case you didn’t see the original story, word leaked last week that Gmail Labs would be adding an SMS chat option. It’ll let you send a text message to any U.S. mobile phone through Gmail’s Web-based chat interface. All of your texts will come from a specific and constant 406 area code, so people can text back to you and their messages will show up in your chat window — just like a normal IM-style conversation.

Google Product Manager Leo Dirac now reveals, however, that his team came across an unexpected problem in the final moments of testing. “We found a glitch,” he says. “When you’d try to turn it on, it wouldn’t fully enable. We thought about keeping it out there — bugs and all — but the experience wasn’t that great.”

As a result, Dirac says, SMS chat has been put on hold until it can be fixed. He predicts we’ll see the feature appear within the next two weeks, though, so hopefully you won’t be holding your breath for long.

(Image: Webmonkey)

Related posts:

1. Report: Gmail to Get Free Texting Today
2. iGoogle Gets Direct Access to Gmail Chat
3. I Want To Be Excited About Gmail Labs, But…Well….

Google may have killed its free “Send to Phone” online text messaging tool, but now it’s replacing it with an even easier SMS solution, according to published reports.

Gmail SMS chat is expected to debut today, tech blog Webmonkey reports. The service — as-of-yet unannounced on the official Gmail Blog — will let you send text messages to cell phones directly from Gmail’s chat interface, the blog says.

Once active, Webmonkey says the function will show up in the Labs menu within Gmail. (As of now, it’s not popping up in mine.) Supposedly, once it’s running, you can then just type in any mobile number, and your message will be delivered as a text. Webmonkey says the message will come from one of several thousands of reserved 406 area code numbers. The same number, it says, will remain constant with your account.

If the service works as touted, this actually sounds pretty handy. The description indicates that the mobile user will be able to text back to you, and their message will pop up in your Gmail chat window — just like any other normal chat message.

There are several other free Web-based texting tools around, but for those of us who have Gmail open often, this functionality will be a welcomed addition, both in the convenient placement and in the interactive back-and-forth chat ability already available in AOL’s Instant Messenger platform. Let’s hope it debuts as predicted — and doesn’t get beaten down by the climbing number of sneaky fees popping up in the text messaging world and costing companies extra for these sorts of services.

(Image: Webmonkey)

Update: Gmail’s Free Texting: What Happened?

Related posts:

1. Gmail’s Free Texting — What Happened?
2. Google “Send to Phone” Gone — Where to Find Free Texting Now?
3. iGoogle Gets Direct Access to Gmail Chat

The whole thing is the result of a class-action lawsuit saying the company violated the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending the unsolicited messages. A court still has to approve the settlement, but if it goes through, everyone who signs up now will eventually see the cash. Timberland has set aside a total of $7 million for the payments. The settlement only affects U.S. customers.

Timberland, for its part, insists it’s not to blame. The company says an independent contractor was charged with making sure everyone who got messages had given consent. (Sure. We believe that.)

All you have to do to get in on the handout is fill out a claim form — currently available only in print-and-mail mode, but with online applications listed as “coming soon” — any time before February 2 of next year. You have to indicate how many spam messages you received in each month during the five year period — an odd request, as likely no one will remember exactly what month they received what junk three years ago. Outside of that, it’s just basic personal information.

A judge is set to officially rule on the settlement on December 18.

Related posts:

1. Calculate How Much Spam Costs You
2. Twitter needs to act urgently on direct message spam
3. Spam-Fighting Solution Gets $20 Million

“Send to Phone” had let you fire off unlimited texts to any U.S. mobile number through either a Web interface or a Firefox/IE toolbar. Google quietly retired it within the past few weeks, though, making no formal announcement outside of the notice on the page. A spokesperson was not immediately available Thursday to provide any further explanation as to the reason for its discontinuation.

Fear not, though: The era of free Internet-based text messaging is not over. I’ve had good luck with Gizmo SMS, a similarly simple Web-based SMS provider with no fees. Unlike Google’s former service, it even supports texts to a ton of countries outside the U.S. If that doesn’t meet your fancy, txtDrop.com is another comparable alternative, though only for users in the U.S. and Canada.

Related posts:

1. Report: Gmail to Get Free Texting Today
2. Gmail’s Free Texting — What Happened?
3. Jajah Babel Offers Free Phone-Based Translations