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Are Your Phone Records For Sale?

January 6, 2006

Calling Records • FTC Shuts Down Pretexting Operation • Phone Pretexters Get Off Cheap • Verizon Wireless Changes Customer Data Policy • FCC Strengthens Rules For Phone Privacy • House Tries Once More to Pass Pretexting Bill • Pretexting Bill: Pretense or Reality? • Hewlett-Packard Pays $14.5 Million to Settle Pretexting Suit • HP Scandal Ignites New Pretexting Battle In Congress • AT&T Sues Calling Record Brokers • Sprint Nextel Settles Case with Florida Data Broker • Feds Sue Calling Record Vendors • Illinois Lawsuit Charges Data Brokerages • Florida Judgment to End Data Broker's Business • Florida Investigates Fake Caller IDs • California Sues Data Trace USA for $10 Million • Missouri Sues Datatraceusa.com • Florida Sues Data Broker Over Sale of Phone Records • Texas Sues Companies Selling Telephone Calling Records • Websites Hawking Phone Records Shut Down • FTC Vows to Stop Illicit Sale of Cell Phone Calling Records • FTC Pledges "Vigorous" Pursuit of Cell Phone Record Sales • AT&T Accused of Eavesdropping, Calling Record Sales • Sprint Sues Cell Phone Record Brokers • Missouri Shuts Down Locatecell.com • Texas Probes Cell Phone Calling Record Sales, Missouri Files Suit • Illinois Sues Company Selling Cell Phone Calling Records • Outcry Over Sale of Cell Phone Calling Records

Every day more telephone conversations take place over wireless phones. Along with the convenience and mobility have come troubling privacy issues. Just how secure are the records of those calls?

The issue has moved to the front burner for some privacy advocates after the Chicago Police Department reportedly warned its officers their cell phone records are available for anyone who wants to buy them. Several online services are said to be the source of the lists of calls, available to anyone willing to pay the price.

The Chicago Police Department has launched an investigation of the purported sales, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. The newspaper said law enforcement officials are concerned because criminals who obtained the call lists could possibly identify informants and undercover officers.

Privacy advocates have concerns as well, pointing out that employers could snoop into the private phone records of employees to learn who they have been calling regularly.

Locatecell.com, one of the companies reportedly cited by the Chicago Police, advertises a number of services on its Web site, including a reverse cell phone number look up service for $65 and a cell phone call record for $110.

"Give us the name and any combination of address or SSN and we will send you the working cell phone number," the company promises.

Some members of Congress are pushing for legislation to tighten controls, arguing the data is, in most cases, not obtained through lawful means. Investigators say, in some cases, telephone company insiders secretly sell customers' phone-call lists to online brokers.

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