WASHINGTON — Targeting both telephone data brokers and telecoms, a House
panel today approved legislation that bans the sale, lease or rental of
confidential telephone records.
The bill also strengthens the ability of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
to pursue the thriving online black-market sale of phone data.
It is now an express violation of the FTC Act for a person to use false pretenses to
obtain or sell confidential phone data, a practice widely known as
pretexting.
In addition, the legislation mandates that the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) write stricter regulations for telecoms to protect the
confidential phone data of their customers. Violations of the rules could
draw as high as a $300,000 fine.
“Living in the information age can be a boon to our prosperity and a bane to
our privacy, but nothing says we have to take the bad along with the good,”
House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) said.
“Americans are
rightfully concerned that identity thieves, stalkers and unscrupulous data
brokers can access … information they believed was kept private by their
telephone company.”
“It is also time for phone companies to do a better job of protecting their customers’ call records in the first place.”
The House Commerce bill also extends the obligations of telephone carriers
to protect phone data to Voice over IP
“Under the guise of deregulation, the [FCC] decided not to apply current
telephone record privacy protections to VoIP services,” Rep. John Dingell
(D-Mich.) said. “This FCC-created loophole must be closed or else we will no
doubt be back here soon with another bill.”
Dingell, the senior Democrat on the committee, added, “Consumer private
telephone calling information is no less sensitive if a person makes a call
using VoIP than using a traditional telephone.”
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Law Enforcement and
Phone Privacy Act of 2006, criminalizing the fraudulent sale or solicitation
of confidential phone records. The bill imposes prison terms up to 20 years
for pretexting for telephone records.
The Judiciary bill also imposes jail terms for Web sites selling or
transferring phone records with consumers’ express consent. Individuals
buying the records would also face jail time.
Barton said Wednesday the two bills are likely to be combined into one
legislative package for a full House floor vote. Barton predicted the House
would move quickly to approve the legislation.
“Everyone’s pretty concerned about what has happened and there’s a lot of
momentum going [for the two bills],” he said. “We hope to get it to the
president by the spring.”
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone carriers are obligated
to protect the Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) of consumers,
but last summer the privacy watchdog Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) complained to the FCC that confidential phone records are readily
available for sale on the Internet.
The telephone carriers say their customer service representatives are being
tricked out of the information through pretexting. EPIC also claims
unscrupulous operators can crack consumers’ online telephone accounts and
suggests that evidence exists of dishonest insiders at the carriers selling
access to information.
“There are questions of whether the purveyors of consumers are skirting
current law to hock their wares. It is time for Congress to end all
ambiguity in the law and make it clear that the pretexting for and the
selling of phone records are illegal, period,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
said shortly before the unanimous voice vote.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. Any differences
between the two chambers’ bills would have to be reconciled before going to
the White House.
