FairPoint urged Maine regulators to not entangle FairPoint’s priv...
FairPoint urged Maine regulators to not entangle FairPoint’s privacy policies with the stalled dispute over whether Verizon unlawfully turned over customer call records to the National Security Agency. FairPoint was responding to a Public Utilities Commission suggestion two weeks…
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ago that it expand its privacy protections beyond customer proprietary network information (CPNI) to include “customer records, wiretap, or other requests which may involve the disclosure of customer information or communications,” and to specify that privacy safeguards apply not just to CPNI requests but to all information requests. The PUC itself was responding to concerns from the Maine Civil Liberties Union and ratepayer plaintiffs in the Verizon-NSA privacy case that FairPoint’s privacy policy may not be comprehensive enough. The privacy policy filed with the PUC to fulfill a merger approval condition said FairPoint will turn over customer information and call records only in response to properly- executed official warrants and valid legal orders. But the MCLU and privacy plaintiffs said FairPoint’s policy protected only CPNI information as defined in federal law, while customer privacy also should include any and all records of a customer’s activity. In rebuttal, FairPoint said the MCLU and privacy plaintiffs “appear to assume FairPoint would conduct itself in an unreasonable manner and in violation of federal and state legal requirements with regard to customer privacy.” FairPoint said there have been no findings that its privacy policies have failed to protect customers, are inadequate under law or inconsistent with general industry practices. It said the MCLU and privacy plaintiffs are trying to create privacy issues that have no basis in the record.