Do you know where your kids are? Your phone company does. In fact, your phone company knows a lot more about you than your neighbors, friends, and maybe even your spouse.

CNN Money reported last week on the information-collecting practices of well known mobile providers. “Your phone company knows where you live, what websites you visit, what apps you download, what videos you like to watch, and even where you are,” reported CNN Money’s David Goldman.

That’s not so bad, right? Most people would say that data collection just comes with the diminished privacy that is part of our technologically advancing lives.

Except, now your cell company may not be the only company learning about you by your mobile usage. A few weeks ago, Verizon changed its privacy policy to give them the flexibility of selling your location data, web browsing history, age, gender, etc., to third parties. The information has to be aggregated, combined in with millions of other consumers’ data, and sold on an anonymous basis. Although, there are no clear parameters on what “aggregated” means.

This is one of several maneuvers that phone companies are making to put them in a better position to sell targeted advertising and consumer data to third parties.

CNN Money reported that Verizon was the first mobile provider to publicly confirm that it is selling information about its customers’ usage to third parties. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile say that they do not sell your data—but they still capitalize on it.

Sprint tracks your websites and app usage and uses the data to target ads. AT&T reaches “customized audience segments” based on their consumer tracking technology as well. They talk about their capabilities here.

It’s an exciting tech capability for advertisers of the future. It could also be a real breach of privacy for individual users (for those who care).

This type of ad targeting and technology is definitely “where the puck is going” for digital advertising. It’s a multi-billion dollar business, and it’s going to give all of us a lot of convenience when it comes to accessing information that is targeted to our specific location.

Mobile companies are going to be major players when it comes to real-time trackable data on consumers. Facebook, Google, and credit card companies like Visa are also in the game. There could be great things to come from this—better tracking and transparency surrounding crimes, ads that are better targeted and more.

It seems to me that the technology is progressing faster than our laws, general market knowledge, and privacy advocates can keep up. Will any of us really have any recourse when our mobile companies unilaterally decide to change their privacy policies to allow them to sell our personal data? Do any of us really even understand the terms when we click “I agree” on a new mobile agreement?

Epic.org is one of the leading organizations for defending our privacy online. Since 1994, they have published information on our electronic privacy. Another website with similar information is http://www.eff.org. Web traffic to both sites is modest, and the organizations are small.

It could be argued though that there is more energy put into the Save the Whales campaign or Free Tibet than there is American consumer-level concern for our privacy. I would wager that more calories were burned by Americans last year in one U2 concert than the last decade of privacy-oriented concern.

Am I the only person in my twenties who is suspicious and cynical about what my mobile company is going to do to target and/or capitalize on me in the future?

If our information is being sold, shouldn’t we at least demand lower phone bills? Isn’t there some concession for our passive compliance with the mobile companies’ progressive erosion of our privacy?

Don’t get me wrong. On any day, I’m all for tech development, evolution, and convenience. But I’m also noticing that there is a real void of any consumer voice in the future of personal information. Is it because no one cares? Maybe so! And, that’s okay too. I’m sure I’ll come around when I see how much more the geo-targeted and lifestyle targeted content enriches my life.