In view of recent events, I have read that those who use a prepaid phone for confidential info should replace it every 1-3 months.

and # since I started a few years ago and all has been fine.

Maybe if you are a major drug dealer, or a hit man or something. Guys in this hobby use burner phones to hide the hobby from the wife.

Agreed. Being careful is one thing, but there is only so much you can do. I have been teaching myself about security for a bit now, its become a hobby. Its kind of like how sex can only be safer, it can never be safe. The only completely safe thing is not doing it. There is no way to be 100% secure besides not engaging in this hobby, so paranoia is kind of a dead end. Do what feels comfortable and be realistic on the level of risks you are taking. I doubt the NSA cares what we are up too :-P

Here is an excellent article about how they are doing it.

"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

While I agree with your philosophy, there is a pretty big leap between every group in the "first they came for" piece and terrorists. The list is persecuted religious and political groups, whereas terrorists are, by definition, actual really bad criminals.  Not a guy-and-girl-having-sex-for-money criminal, but mass-murdering-people criminal.  

I'm on my second burner phone in three years, but only because the first one was a piece of shit that had crappy reception where I live. I plan to keep it for a long time.  I figure if the gov't. wants to come after me they are plenty smarter than me and will do it no matter what kind of tricks I try to pull.  Que sera, sera.  Gitmo, here I come!

and if you are referring to NSA, you are shit out of luck, they know what number is assigned what region and which store sold it and track anyone down.

If you are concerned about recent NSA events, there is not fucking thing anyone can do.

A recent example is, when the Patriot Act was expiring, Congress and Senate renewed it by a Veto proof majority. That shows, once the few and the privileged have the power to monitor and control others, they will not give up.  They will use it for their own selfish reasons and feed the rest of BS and keep us in the dark.

Your second paragraph is wrong, they asked for all call records from all carries, and big ISP’s like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Social Media sites like Face Book , Twitter, etc. So, not sure where you got the "Bush and Obama targeting people it believes are hoping to kill civilians”.

Yes, the NSA can get the area code associated with the phone and they can identify the store that sold it.  But if you bought the phone with cash and registered it anonymously (easy to do), they can't tie it to you.  You just have to be sure to reload your minutes with cash.  I bought my burner in a neighboring state, so they are welcome to look for me there.
PS: That line was delivered by Gene Hackman in "Enemy of the State."
You're welcome.

Best answer, because in all actuality, it's pretty much true. Unless you use your phone ONE time, for ONE day, and toss it, you're being tracked if they mark you. Now, I highly doubt random people like us who are not trafficking, seeing underage children, selling drugs, or depositing large sums of money in a checking account, are a top priority to anyone important but that's just the way it is. If you're not doing more than just cheating on your wife with a few providers now and then, I highly doubt the black helicopters are circling around.  

I you were ever suspected of a crime, 99% of the time you could say "That's impossible, I was on TER at the time" and 99% of the time, you would be telling the truth.

But they can track your phone by the device itself, not where you got it from. I think they do it by cell phone towers- triangulating the ping.

They can trianglate the cells location and if you do not remove the battery when at home they can get you address and thus your identity. Cell location is part of the data collected by cell companies thus NSA. At this time they are not using said data to hunt mongers or hookers, but power always gets abused, so tomorrow who knows. The federal government can trace any phone at any time and can do it without a warrant.

They can know where the phone is but that does not give them your identity if you've paid cash and registered it anonymously.

The way some people define sex work is as human trafficking and rape regardless of consent or age. And the way this technology has been used means that the people using it don't have to tell you why they suspect someone. you just have to assume they have your best interest at heart. That's not good enough for me or many people. The point of checks and balances, which barely exist anymore, was to prevent any ambiguity.

I knew they could triangulate, as they've caught murderers this way.  So I supposed they could do it even with an anonymous phone.  At this point I don't think they are doing it.  But they could.  BTW, my burner phone is almost never on it home, except for very brief periods.  So it's unlikely they could ever do this to me.  I doubt most mongers leave their burn phones on but this is a good reason not to.

And cell tower information IS part of the data they collect. Keeping the phone off is not enough. The fact is if the government wants you they will get you. Good news is at this time the feds couldn't care less about us.

It is not that hard to figure out where you make most calls from and triangulate. Besides, your number there are other identification codes transmitted by every mobile phone each time you make a call.  

The network needs to know which cell tower you are connected to so it can switch calls as you move around. Don’t forget, all phones have GPS in them