II 109th CONGRESS 2nd Session S. 2178 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 18, 2006 Mr. Schumer (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Burns, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Reid) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To make the stealing and selling of telephone records a criminal offense.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006.

2.

Findings

Congress finds that— (1)telephone records can be of great use to criminals because the information contained in call logs listed in such records include a wealth of personal data; (2)many call logs reveal the names of telephone users' doctors, public and private relationships, business associates, and more; (3)although other personal information such as social security numbers may appear on public documents, which can be accessed by data brokers, the only warehouse of telephone records is located at the phone companies themselves; (4)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 (5)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.

3.

Fraud and related activity in connection with obtaining confidential phone records information from a covered entity

Chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1038 the following:

1039.

Fraud and related activity in connection with obtaining confidential phone records information from a covered entity

(a)

Criminal violation

Whoever obtains, or attempts to obtain, confidential phone records information from a covered entity, without authorization from the customer to whom such confidential phone records information relates, by knowingly and intentionally— (1)making false or fraudulent statements or representations to an employee of a covered entity; (2)making such statements or representations to a customer of a covered entity; (3)providing false documentation to a covered entity knowing that such document is false; or (4)accessing customer accounts of a covered entity via the Internet; shall, for each such occurrence, be fined in accordance with this title, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.(b)

Prohibition on sale of confidential phone records information

Except as otherwise provided by applicable law, any person, including any employee of a covered entity or any data broker, who knowingly and intentionally sells, or attempts to sell, confidential phone records information from a covered entity, without authorization from the customer to whom such confidential phone records information relates, shall be fined in accordance with this title, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both. (c)

Enhanced penalties for aggravated cases

Whoever violates, or attempts to violate, subsection (a) while violating another law of the United States or as part of a pattern of any illegal activity involving more than $100,000, or more than 50 customers of a covered entity, in a 12-month period shall be fined twice the amount provided in subsection (b)(3) or (c)(3) (as the case may be) of section 3571 of this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both. (d)

Nonapplicability to law enforcement agencies

Subsection (a) shall be construed so as to not prevent any action by a law enforcement agency, or any officer, employee, or agent of such agency, to obtain confidential phone records information from a covered entity in connection with the performance of the official duties of the agency, in accordance with other applicable laws. (e)

Definitions

In this section: (1)

Confidential phone records information

The term confidential phone records information means— (A)information that— (i)relates to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location, and amount of use of a service offered by a covered entity subscribed to by any customer of that covered entity; and (ii)is made available to a covered entity by a customer solely by virtue of the relationship between the covered entity and the customer; and (B)information contained in any bill related to the product or service offered by a covered entity and received by any customer of the covered entity. (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 person, or authorized representative of a person, to whom the covered entity provides a product or service. (4)

Document

The term document means any information in any form. (5)

IP-enabled voice service

The term IP-enabled voice service means the provision of real-time 2-way 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, for a fee (whether part of a bundle of services or separately) with 2-way interconnection capability such that the service can originate traffic to, and terminate traffic from, a public switched telephone network.

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