In one of my Pogue's Posts blog entries last week, I wrote about Futurephone, a very cool and very free way to make international phone calls. Not from your computer--from your phone.

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And I quote: "There's no contract, fees, taxes, signup, registration or calling cards; you don't even give them your name or e-mail address. You just pick up the phone--home phone, office phone, cellphone--and make a free call to Argentina, Australia, China, England, France, Iceland, Israel, Mexico, Venezuela or any of 40 other countries." Read the whole thing here.

Some readers immediately tried the thing out, and were as surprised as I was to find out that yes, this service really works and no, you don't pay anything.

A bunch of you, however, had a reaction that surprised me: "I wonder how much data they'll harvest? Not just phone numbers but also the content of the conversations."

OK, what?

So you mean the whole operation is a giant phone number collection scam? Meaning that Futurephone will use caller ID to find out *your* number? Or do you think they're more interested in collecting the numbers you're *calling*--in China and Estonia?

OK, I'm as interested in privacy as the next person. But if someone were interested in harvesting phone numbers, why would he go to the trouble of launching this elaborate phone-services company? Wouldn't it be infinitely more efficient just to pick up a tidy, complete, ready-to-harvest, pre-compiled list of phone numbers--a little thing called the *phone book*?

And then the bit about listening in to your calls. Well, sure, I guess Futurephone could theoretically listen in to your calls. But why stop being neurotic right there? Why not worry about Skype listening in to your Skype calls? And Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint? And your long-distance and home-phone companies? Heck, someone might have bugged the room you're in at this very moment!

This all reminds me of a recent e-mail from a reader who wanted to know if it's possible to get a cellphone that encrypts your conversation so nobody can eavesdrop on the line.

This, too, blows my mind. A couple weeks ago, I was riding a commuter train to New York. A lady was loudly talking on her cellphone; that's nothing new. But although she was holding it up to her ear, she was utterly unaware that she had it on speakerphone. She was broadcasting *both* sides of her phone call to the entire car; the rest of us could hardly stop ourselves from cracking up.

Dude: if anyone's going to eavesdrop on your cellphone calls, it's not going to be mysterious spies hacking into the cellular network towers. It's going to be the person next to you on the p***, train or sidewalk.

And then there was the week my own home-office phone number flashed for a moment on the screen of a cellphone in one of my weekly nytimes.com videos. I didn't really care, because (a) I had to show *someone's* phone number to illustrate the feature, and (b) what's the worst that could happen? Someone might (gasp) CALL ME?

Indeed, one reader did, not realizing it was my own number. "Excuse me--did you know that your phone number was shown all over the Internet, in one of David Pogue's videos?" asked this concerned citizen.

I explained that it was my own number. He was thunderstruck. "Holy cow! Your phone must have been ringing off the hook today!"

"No," I explained. "You're the only one."

We chatted a minute, I thanked him for his concern, and we hung up.

So what's my point?

I'm alarmed at our loss of privacy. I wish we had more. I wish we left fewer tracks.

But please--have some perspective. Before you worry that Futurephone is collecting phone numbers in Venezuela, shouldn't you first cut up your credit cards, get an unlisted number and pay for your hotel rooms in cash? Before you conjure up visions of some bored employee at Cingular tuning in to your chats with your mom, shouldn't you cancel your home phone and make all your calls from a pay phone in Grand Central?

All of the much smaller potential abuses make a whopping assumption: that somebody actually *cares a whit* about you and your mundane daily communications. Yes, of course someone at the phone company could look over your phone records and figure out whom you call. But who would ever be so bored, and--forgive me--what could ever be so boring?

You're already in a thousand databases. Your tracks are everywhere. MasterCard knows where you go and what you buy. Your grocery store knows what you eat and how often. You gave up your theoretical online privacy the day you signed up for an Internet account, let alone this newsletter.

The bottom line: Worrying that Futurephone might have secret plans to invade your privacy is like repairing the screen door when all your windows are wide open. If you're going to be paranoid, at least focus on the real threats; there are plenty of those to go around.

This week's Pogue's Posts blog.

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