Group Calls For FCC Rulemaking On Customer Billing Privacy
In a letter to the FCC Tues., the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) called for the FCC to investigate whether communications carriers are adequately protecting individuals’ data. In the letter, EPIC said it had found 40 companies that offer to sell telephone billing records or other confidential information to the public. “Accordingly, we are petitioning the FCC to initiate a new rulemaking to establish higher safeguards for telephone records information,” EPIC said.
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According to the letter, the cost to information brokers of building and maintaining the infrastructure to offer call record data is substantial. Information brokers must maintain websites, have contacts with investigators in many states and process transactions quickly. There’s a risk there will be a “no hit” resulting in the broker performing services without compensation. Many sites offer their services through sponsored links on popular search engines, adding to their costs, the letter said. “Combined, these factors and the large number of entities offering call records online suggests that many individuals phone records are being illegally accessed and sold every day simply to cover the cost of doing business,” EPIC said.
In July, EPIC complained to the FCC about one company, Intelligent E-Commerce (IE), which runs bestpeoplesearch.com. EPIC claimed IE misrepresented its ability to obtain telephone records legally, and substantial harm occurred to those whose information had been sold. In a press release, IE responded that cellphone- and landline-based call records “help parents locate missing and runaway children; help solve crimes; bail bondsmen locate fugitives; insurance companies refute fraudulent claims,” and the like. The company called call-record retrieval a “necessary product that has been aiding the investigation industry for decades.”
Carriers we contacted emphasized their respect for the privacy of their customers. “The security and privacy of customer information has for decades been at the core of how Verizon and its predecessor companies conduct business each and every day. We were the first in the industry to have a chief privacy officer, and we were the first to establish and then post on our Web site for customers a distinct set of privacy principals,” a Verizon spokesman said. Verizon continually looks at ways to enhance the protection of this data, he said. Verizon will reply to the EPIC petition when the FCC issues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, he added.
Cingular said it hasn’t had a chance to review EPIC’s letter and couldn’t comment on it. But a spokesman said that “protecting customer information is of the utmost priority to Cingular. We have a variety of measures in place to protect unauthorized access to customer information and we also train our customer care representatives to be alert for anyone to tries to improperly coax information out of them.”
Verizon Wireless said it continuously updates security measures to stay a step ahead of people trying to obtain information illegally -- such as by posing as another person to gain personal information.