House Committee Unanimously Passes Cellphone Privacy Bill
The House Commerce Committee Wed. unanimously passed a cellphone privacy bill that would make it illegal for online companies to sell phone records without consumers’ permission. The bill would expressly outlaw “pretexting,” the practice of impersonating another’s identity to obtain someone’s records over the phone. The measure also includes a narrow law enforcement exemption so police can obtain data for investigations. “I look forward to quickly moving this bill to the floor,” said Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.).
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The bipartisan bill drew only one amendment, which was adopted unanimously. Offered by Reps. Pitts (R-Pa.) and Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Telecom Subcommittee, the amendment requires consumer consent for inclusion in 411 cellphone directories. The bill would authorize the FTC to seek civil penalties for incidences of pretexting, and increase FCC fines on telephone companies that sell or allow phone data to be released. For a single violation, fines would rise from $100,000 to $300,000, and multiple violations could result in a maximum fine of $3 million.
Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Consumer Subcommittee Chmn. Allen (R-Va.) introduced a bipartisan cellphone privacy bill that would prohibit pretexting and the unauthorized sale of consumer phone records. Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R- Alaska) signed onto the bill along with Co-Chmn. Inouye (D- Hawaii) and a markup is tentatively set for next Thurs. “We will send a clear message to thieves looking to make a quick buck through this fraudulent and deceptive behavior: you will be punished,” Allen said.
Industry groups saw some flaws in Barton’s bill. “We have serious concerns about how far this bill goes into issues completely unrelated to the illicit behavior Congress is attempting to stop,” a CTIA spokesman said. “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.” Verizon Wireless said it “appreciates” the issues raised by the committee, but complained the bill places too much focus on regulating service providers. The company said the House and Senate Judiciary bills (HR-4709, S-2178) passed last week (CD March 3 p1) are a better approach because they focus on the behavior of pretexters and criminalizes the sale of cell phone records. “We are still very concerned that… this bill would impose additional costs on consumers without a commensurate benefit,” USTelecom said.
Consumer groups said the legislation doesn’t go far enough to ensure consumer safety. “We remain concerned that banning pretexting to phone companies alone will result in the practice being shifted to other targets,” said a letter sent to Barton and Ranking Member Dingell (D-Mich.) by AARP, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America and U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “Congress should close the door on pretexting and provide explicit and absolute prohibitions on the practice,” the letter said. The groups urged the Committee to require the FCC to adopt regulations mandating customer-specific identifiers, encryption and records deletion practices -- provisions that the bill now leaves up to FCC discretion.
Barton said he thinks the committee bill could eventually be merged with the House and Senate Judiciary bills (HR-4709, S-2178) that were passed last week (CD March 3 p1) “We're not opposed to the criminal penalties section in the Judiciary bill,” Barton told reporters. He said he hadn’t had a discussion with House Judiciary Chmn Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) about the prospect, although there have been staff-level talks about the bill.
Following the bill’s passage, the committee agreed unanimously to hire a consultant to assist the House Commerce Investigations Subcommittee in its ongoing probe into data brokers that illegally acquire consumer cellphone records. “Sometimes we just don’t have the resources and this is one of those times,” Barton told reporters, explaining why the committee is hiring outside help. The consultant will be expected to provide technical expertise and additional manpower to the committee staff. “We're pretty concerned about some of the things that have gone on,” Barton said, adding that it’s possible that the committee could hand over information to law enforcement officials when it’s finished with the investigations.