WASHINGTON—The House Commerce Committee Wednesday morning quickly passed a bill making the sale of telecommunications customer call records illegal. The bill also gives the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission added tools to restrict the sale of call records, and requires that customers first give their permission before their personal call data is used for marketing purposes.
The bill passed by the House Commerce Committee has yet to be introduced, but Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the committee, said he expects to do that shortly. The bill will then be sent directly to the House floor for consideration. Barton told reporters that he hopes to pass a finished bill to President George W. Bush within a few months.
Separately, the House Judiciary Committee last week passed a bill criminalizing pretexting—impersonating a customer to obtain call records. Barton said he expects the two bills to be combined before the full House votes on the issue.
CTIA gave reserved applause to the action.
“We applaud any effort that focuses on the criminal who is unlawfully obtaining and marketing private call record information. At the same time, we have serious concerns about how far this bill goes into issues completely unrelated to the illicit behavior Congress is attempting to stop. We hope to convince Congress to keep the focus of this well-meaning legislation on the criminal, who by all accounts has brazenly ignored the law and profited from it,” said Joseph Farren, CTIA director of public affairs.
In the only amendment offered during the House Commerce Committee consideration, customers would be required to give their permission for their cell-phone numbers to be listed in a wireless phone directory. Some in the industry support the creation of a 411 directory for wireless-phone numbers, but privacy advocates have pushed for Congress to act before the directory can be created.
The wireless industry has been split on whether to create a 411 directory service for mobile-phone numbers. Verizon Wireless was the first to split from the industry, saying it would not participate. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. has said it is exploring the 411 directory as a potential offering for its customers. The nation’s largest wireless carrier had no immediate comment on the impact of the amendment on the creation of a 411 wireless directory. According to its privacy policy, Cingular would have its customers first give their permission before being included in a directory.
Additionally, the House Commerce Committee agreed to hire a consultant to assist the House Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee staff with the ongoing investigation of data brokers and the sale of cell-phone records. Barton said it was unusual but not unprecedented to hire an outside consultant.
Similar legislation is also winding its way through the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee has passed legislation on the topic, and several other bills are pending in the Senate. Additionally several states have legislation and criminal investigations pending.
In addition to legislative action, the FCC recently proposed strengthening the protection of customer call records. Last month, the commission began seeking comment on five specific measures proposed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center on the topic. Although the customer-call-records scandal erupted in early January following a segment aired on the CBS Evening News, EPIC first raised the issue last August. EPIC asked that the FCC implement rules to protect customers’ call records. The wireless industry opposes the EPIC petition.
