Editorial: Personal information for sale

Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006 | 7:28 a.m.

Federal lawmakers are seeking to prohibit the practice of buying the records of phone calls made from private numbers, which are then sold online to anyone who requests them.

According to the Associated Press, at least 40 Web sites offer to sell for about $100 a month's worth of cell-phone calling records for any number requested, "no questions asked." The companies buy the calling records from people called "pretexters," who purchase the information from phone company employees or obtain it by calling up phone companies and posing as regulators or employers.

The Federal Trade Commission cracked down on pretexting in 1998 after the Los Angeles Police Department discovered organized crime suspects had obtained detectives' addresses and other personal data through pretexters. The FTC went after the company selling the information and closed it down -- not for obtaining the officers' information, but because it was "pretexting" financial data from banks, the AP reports.

Congress passed a law in 1999 that makes it illegal to obtain financial information in that manner. But the law doesn't include telephone-calling records.

One FTC official told the AP that the primary objective of the 1998 investigation was to protect bank records "because that is really where the most direct harm is." But sale of the calling records "raises significant privacy concerns," the official added.

Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless have filed civil lawsuits against such companies, winning a permanent injunction and a restraining order respectively. And three U.S. senators introduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit posing as someone else when calling a phone company and also make it illegal for an employee to sell customer information.

That's a start. Granted, some phone company employees may continue to sell the data, if the money is good. But at least they would face some legal consequences if caught. But selling such information online should be prohibited as well. This appalling breach of privacy should be illegal.