It boggles the mind that federal and local cops got their mitts on countless Americans’ phone records without so much as a subpoena or a warrant. The information came from data brokers whose methods for obtaining information are sleazy at best.
The unhealthy relationship between those supposedly upholding the law and the brokers, who sometimes obtain individual phone records by lying or breaking into accounts online, was exposed during hearings this week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Meantime, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind charged in a new book that Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp., the world’s largest processor of credit-card transactions and wire transfers, voluntarily offered the FBI and CIA access to data on millions of customers after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Given the mood of the country, First Data’s action is understandable. But Suskind’s book, “The One Percent Doctrine,” alleges that the names and financial and personal profiles of countless Americans are now in FBI computers and the databases of other agencies engaged in the “war on terror.” Who’s to say the data won’t be mined for less admirable purposes, such as discrediting political enemies?
Meanwhile, it is a relief to see that the House committee unanimously OK’d legislation to forbid data sellers from lying to obtain personal phone records, with hefty fines for phone companies that don’t adequately guard information.
Some broker practices “seem to be legal,” said committee chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “Unfortunately, brokers routinely lie to get their hands on this information.”
The brokers give the data free to the cops – given what Barton said, we can’t help wonder if they’re trying to buy protection from prosecution – but sell it to banks, auto leasing firms, bail bondsmen and others tracking down delinquent customers. But information also has been used by stalkers and reportedly figured in at least one homicide, said a committee staffer speaking on background.
Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, says there “needs to be a look at whether the privacy laws need to be updated to keep up with the latest tactics and technology.” The House legislation sounds a warning to the industry and government alike.
