Ask your wireless provider
to remove online access and call details. If you don't access
your cell phone records online or plan to do so in the future, call
your cell company and ask them to deactivate online access to your
account. If you have unlimited minutes or aren't interested in the
details of your call history, you can also ask to have this specific
information removed from your bill.
Regulators and cell companies
step up to the plate
Indignation over the illegal sale of cell phone records is boiling
over in Congress, where several members of the House of Representatives
have vowed to introduce a bill in the next week on this topic,
according to Hoofnagle, who attended the hearing on Wednesday.
"We are going to see a bill on the federal level that deals with
this issue," he says, noting that a number of states have passed
laws and that California residents in particular have solid protections
in place already.
Givens says that the cell phone companies are jumping
on the bandwagon, suing the brokers and companies that are illegally
selling their information. Verizon, Cingular, Sprint and other
companies have sued brokers, and in some cases secured injunctions
against them, because obtaining phone records under false pretexts
is a crime.
However, while cell phone companies are suing brokers
and prodding federal and state regulators to take a tougher line
with these companies, they aren't exactly enthusiastic about the
possibility of increased regulation of their industry.
"They don't want more rules," says Hoofnagle. "And
this might be reasonable in that there could be a law saying that
they must take reasonable precautions to safeguard consumers'
data and if they don't do that they have to pay a fine."
Both the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission
are taking steps to curb these practices.
Jon Leibowitz, commissioner of the FTC, said in
his testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,
"Protecting the privacy of consumers' data requires a multifaceted
approach: Coordinated law enforcement by government agencies,
as well as action by the telephone carriers, outreach to educate
consumers and the industry, and improved security by record holders
are essential for any meaningful response to this assault on consumers'
privacy."
