[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 852 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 852
To prohibit the obtaining of customer information from
telecommunications carriers by false pretenses, and the sale or
disclosure of such records obtained by false pretenses.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 6, 2007
Mr. Inslee (for himself and Mrs. Blackburn) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit the obtaining of customer information from
telecommunications carriers by false pretenses, and the sale or
disclosure of such records obtained by false pretenses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Consumer Telephone Records
Protection Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) customer telephone records may be accessed without
authorization of the customer by--
(A) an employee of the telephone company selling
the data;
(B) ``pretexting'', whereby a data broker or other
person pretends to be the owner of the phone and
convinces the telephone company's employees to release
the data to them; or
(C) unauthorized access of accounts via the
Internet; and
(2) because telephone companies encourage customers to
manage their accounts online, many set up the online capability
in advance. Many customers never access their Internet
accounts, however. If someone seeking the information activates
the account before the customer, he or she can gain unfettered
access to the telephone records and call logs of that customer.
SEC. 3. UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ACTS AND PRACTICES IN CONNECTION WITH
OBTAINING CONFIDENTIAL PHONE RECORDS INFORMATION OF A
COVERED ENTITY.
(a) Prohibition on Obtaining Confidential Phone Records Information
Under False Pretenses.--It shall be unlawful for any person in
interstate or foreign commerce to knowingly and intentionally obtain,
or attempt to obtain, confidential phone records information of a
covered entity, by--
(1) making false or fraudulent statements or
representations to an employee of a covered entity;
(2) making such false or fraudulent statements or
representations to a customer of a covered entity;
(3) providing a document to a covered entity knowing that
such document is false or fraudulent; or
(4) accessing customer accounts of a covered entity via the
Internet, or by means of conduct that violates section 1030 of
this title, without prior authorization from the customer to
whom such confidential phone records information relates.
(b) Prohibition on Sale or Transfer of Confidential Phone Records
Information.--
(1) Except as otherwise permitted by applicable law, it
shall be unlawful for any person in interstate or foreign
commerce to knowingly and intentionally sell or transfer, or
attempt to sell or transfer, confidential phone records
information of a covered entity, without prior authorization
from the customer to whom such confidential phone records
information relates, or knowing or having reason to know such
information was obtained fraudulently.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, the exceptions
specified in section 222(d) of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 222(d)) shall apply for the use of confidential
phone records information by any covered entity, as defined in
section 7.
(c) Prohibition on Purchase or Receipt of Confidential Phone
Records Information.--
(1) Except as otherwise permitted by applicable law, it
shall be unlawful for any person in interstate or foreign
commerce to knowingly and intentionally purchase or receive, or
attempt to purchase or receive, confidential phone records
information of a covered entity, without prior authorization
from the customer to whom such confidential phone records
information relates, or knowing or having reason to know such
information was obtained fraudulently.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, the exceptions
specified in section 222(d) of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 222(d)) shall apply for the use of confidential
phone records information by any covered entity, as defined in
section 7.
SEC. 4. NONAPPLICABILITY TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.
Section 3 shall not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative,
protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the
United States, a State, or political subdivision of a State, or of an
intelligence agency of the United States.
SEC. 5. TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.
Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (h) as subsection (i); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (g) the following new
subsection:
``(h) Notice of Violations.--The Commission shall by regulation
require each telecommunications carrier to notify the customer of any
incidents in which such telecommunications carrier becomes or is made
aware in which customer proprietary network information relating to
such customer is disclosed to someone other than the customer in
violation of this section or section 3 of the Consumer Telephone
Records Protection Act of 2006.''.
SEC. 6. ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.
A violation of section 3 shall be treated as an unfair or deceptive
act or practice in violation of section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45). All of the functions and powers of the
Federal Trade Commission under that Act are available to the Commission
to enforce compliance by any person with such section, irrespective of
whether that person is engaged in commerce or meets any other
jurisdictional tests in the Federal Trade Commission Act, including the
power to enforce the provisions of such section in the same manner as
if the violation had been a violation of a Federal Trade Commission
trade regulation rule.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act, the following definitions apply:
(1) Confidential phone records information.--The term
``confidential phone records information'' means information
that--
(A) relates to the quantity, technical
configuration, type, destination, location, or amount
of use of a service offered by a covered entity,
subscribed to by any customer of that covered entity,
and kept by or on behalf of that covered entity solely
by virtue of the relationship between that covered
entity and the customer;
(B) is made available to a covered entity by a
customer solely by virtue of the relationship between
that covered entity and the customer; or
(C) is contained in any bill, itemization, or
account statement provided to a customer by or on
behalf of a covered entity solely by virtue of the
relationship between that covered entity and the
customer.
(2) Covered entity.--The term ``covered entity''--
(A) has the same meaning given the term
``telecommunications carrier'' in section 3 of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153); and
(B) includes any provider of IP-enabled voice
service.
(3) Customer.--The term ``customer'' means, with respect to
a covered entity, any individual, partnership, association,
joint stock company, trust, or corporation, or authorized
representative of such customer, to whom the covered entity
provides a product or service.
(4) IP-enabled voice service.--The term ``IP-enabled voice
service'' means the provision of real-time voice communications
offered to the public, or such class of users as to be
effectively available to the public, transmitted through
customer premises equipment using TCP/IP protocol, or a
successor protocol, (whether part of a bundle of services or
separately) with interconnection capability such that the
service can originate traffic to, or terminate traffic from,
the public switched telephone network, or a successor network.
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