House Lawmakers Press FCC for Phone-Co. Certifications
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- House lawmakers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to turn over annual-certification records from the largest wireless and landline phone companies amid concerns about the sale of personal phone records.
The lawmakers, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, are seeking information on the internal procedures used by each company to protect the confidentiality of consumer information. The request comes amid widening concerns about the privacy of personal phone records, which allegedly have been available on the Internet through private data brokers.
"In recent cases involving the online sale of telephone records, the apparent ease with which such personal information has been compromised, obtained, and then sold, is shocking and unacceptable," according to a Jan. 23 letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin that was released Tuesday by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., another signatory of the letter.
The House lawmakers also pressed the FCC for details about when it would determine whether to act on a petition filed last August by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group, about rules to better safeguard consumer phone records.
An FCC spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; Siobhan.Hughes@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 25th January 2006
