WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission Wednesday filed civil complaints against five data brokers, urging the court to find that the data brokers violated the FTC Act and that they must give up any money they obtained from the practice of obtaining and selling customer call records.
“The account holders have not authorized the defendants to obtain access to or sell their confidential customer phone records. Instead, to obtain such information, defendants have used, or caused others to use, false pretenses, fraudulent statements, fraudulent or stolen documents or other misrepresentations, including posing as a customer of a telecommunications carrier, to induce officers, employees or agents of telecom carriers to disclose confidential customer phone records,” reads the complaint.
In a press release, the FTC thanked the Federal Communications Commission, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. for their assistance.
“Trafficking in consumer’s confidential telephone records is outrageous. It robs consumers of their privacy and exposes them to everything from snoops to stalkers. We intend to put a stop to it,” said Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
The five data brokers charged are as follows:
77 Investigations Inc. and Reginald Kimbro, based in Upland, Calif.;
AccuSearch Inc. and Jay Patel, based in Cheyenne, Wyo.;
CEO Group Inc. and Scott Joseph, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and
Information Search Inc. and David Kacala, based in Baltimore
In addition to customer call records, Integrity Security & Investigations Services Inc., based in Yorktown, Va., also advertised, obtained and sold consumer’s financial records, including credit-card information, said the FTC.
Earlier this year, the FTC sent warning letters to 29 companies.
After a lull, action on the customer-call-records scandal, which erupted in early January following a segment aired on the CBS Evening News, has heated up again. Last week, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006, which criminalizes pretexting—the practice of impersonating someone else to get access to their records. The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act would create prison terms of up to 20 years and fines of up to $500,000, including penalties for using the records to commit crimes against law enforcement or domestic-violence victims.
Another bill aimed at changing the way telecommunications carriers protect customer call records is still awaiting House action. Similar legislation in the Senate could also be considered at any time.
Earlier this week, the Federal Communication Commission received comment on five specific measures proposed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center on the topic last August. EPIC asked that the FCC implement rules to protect customers’ call records. The wireless industry opposed the EPIC petition.
Action is also occurring at the state level in both legislatures and the courts.
