If They assume you are where your mobe is while you're making a call, then it becomes a rather simple tech-geek game to spoof The System to have Them think you're in a different location than where you actually are.

Back-to-back handsets being a far too-obvious-to-work ploy.

I mention this with the intent that Plod will be very careful in making assumptions.

The government requires it...

The real brain-twisting question is -- what is the excuse for phone companies to keep that data for so long?

I have difficulty working up outrage over anything wireless: if you *pay* to put a spy gadget in your pocket, and broadcast to the world, then you can hardly complain that the gov't makes obvious use of it. -- But in the abstract, I'm not *for* any increase of gov't snooping.

In my day, we used safe secure *wires* that gov't had to physically connect to, before they put in all them dang computerized switches. No good ever comes of digital computers, I tells ya.

Even the thickest reactionary teabagger would figure out to leave his phone at home when bombing the "progress through metric system" headquarters.

This is doubleplus ungood, indeed!

and what if someone else was using my phone?

So much for the doctrine of laissez faire.