Released: February 09, 2006

Congress looks at cell phone privacy

Source: By Alison Vekshin, Stephens Media Group

With about $100 and a mouse click separating a snoop and your cell phone records, lawmakers in Congress are taking steps to make it illegal to use fraud to obtain and sell the private information.

Among them is Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who is expected to introduce legislation this week that would make it illegal to sell and obtain a person’s cell phone records.

“Unfortunately, the success of the Internet has also created problems with regard to consumer privacy,” Pryor said during a hearing of the Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism Subcommittee.

Senators asked government officials, privacy- and victims’-rights advocates, and a telecommunications industry representative for input on how to combat cell phone privacy violations.

At issue is a practice called “pretexting.” Brokers misrepresent themselves to phone companies in order obtain customer records and sell them online.

In other cases, hackers break into a phone company’s database or an employee of the company steals and sells the information.

About 40 Internet-based data brokers, including Cellulartrace.com and Data Trace USA, process requests for data in a matter of hours for about $100.

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