Bill to outlaw misuse of consumers’ cell phone records moves forward

Media release

March 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bipartisan bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to put those who steal telephone records behind bars cleared a key hurdle in Senate today. A unanimous vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee moves the bill closer to approval by the full Senate.

The bill makes it a crime to steal and sell records for cell phones, traditional landlines and Internet-based telephones, and would criminalize the act of making false statements to obtain a customer's phone record or access records on the Internet without permission. It also would become a crime for a phone company employee to sell customer data without consent.

An issue of both personal privacy and public safety, there are more than 200 million cell phone subscribers who could be potential victims. As was widely reported in January, a blogger accessed retired Gen. Wesley Clark’s cell phone records.

“This bill is essential to both personal privacy and security. We need to protect our phone records from strangers and criminals by passing this bill,” says Nelson, an outspoken privacy advocate.

An identical bill was introduced in the House of Representatives and received approval by the House Judiciary Committee this morning as well. And with a diverse group of 23 senators backing the legislation, Nelson is hopeful that the bill will continue to move rapidly through Congress.

Attached is an example of how websites sell your cell phone records, a background article and a summary of the bill.

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