Editorial: Crackdown on snooping

Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

A controversy involving private investigators that Hewlett-Packard Co. hired to root through the personal phone records of news reporters raises privacy issues that could affect most people, not just the media.

According to a recent story by the Washington Post, Hewlett-Packard hired the investigators to figure out who leaked confidential corporate information to the media. The private phone records of nine journalists were examined without their permission.

One of the reporters was alerted to the intrusion by the California attorney general's office, which has launched a criminal investigation into the search. In California, it is against the law to gain unauthorized access to personal records through computers.

But laws vary by state. And consumer advocates told the Post that this case illustrates the need for comprehensive national laws that protect consumers' personal records from unauthorized or secret access - not only phone data, but also utility, bank and medical records.

Congress has entertained at least four bills dealing with unauthorized access to personal phone records this year, but none has passed. Yet, privacy experts told the Post, incidents of people examining others' records by using fake identities are increasing. And to what extent the activity is illegal is up to each state's laws.

This issue needs to be taken more seriously and addressed more broadly by Congress. People's private records are just that - private. And no one should have access without permission.