U.S. senators have announced two new bills following the American public's amazement at recent reports that revealed just how easy it was to acquire almost anyone's private cell-phone records.
On Jan. 18, 2006 Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, introduced the Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006, which would prohibit the sale of telephone call records of private individuals. The legislation stipulates hefty fines for the theft and sale of mobile phone, landline and VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) subscriber records.
According to the senator, a new federal law is necessary because under current legislation people who sell telephone records cannot be convicted.
A second bill will be introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee, a Washington-state Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, after the House of Representatives returns to work on Jan. 31, the two lawmakers said. Their bill would increase the criminal penalties for people who pose as account holders to access telephone records. The purpose of this second piece of legislation is to combat identity theft, which is then used to acquire information on telephone conversations.
Not content with the two privacy bills, politicians in the U.S. are also pressing on with other action against those currently selling telephone records. Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, announced that he has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Web sites that offer to sell mobile phone records, including information about incoming and outgoing calls, for as little as US$89.95.
A recent article on Americablog revealed how one journalist bought the telephone records of former presidential candidate General Wesley Clark on the Web site Celltolls.com. That same site promises ":outgoing calls made from the most recent (or requested) billing period, including dates and calls made," with results available in one to four hours.
It was namely that incident involving General Clark that drew the public's attention to the problem and sparked the flurry of activity by politicians in Washington to counteract the threats to privacy and the risk of identity theft.
Charles Schumer's Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 bill, for instance, would make it illegal for someone to obtain customer information from a telephone service provider using false pretenses or to access a customer account on the Internet to obtain billing information without authorization. The bill also makes it a crime for phone company employees to sell customer information without proper authorization.
“When it comes to privacy, American regulatory measures are becoming more and more severe. We have no doubt that at the beginning of 2006 a federal law on leaks of personal and classified information will be adopted, as well as the bill on the protection of telephone records presented last week," says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
“All those legal changes mean businesses will have to modernize their IT systems to detect and avert leaks and the illegal circulation of private and confidential data. First place on the list of threats, as always, goes to insiders. They are what telephone operators and other firms will have to deal with first of all. Finally, I would just like to point out that averting a leak is much cheaper than going to court and paying a huge fine," adds Denis Zenkin.
Source: CSO Magazine
