Public Knowledge Leads Petition for FCC to Protect Phone Customers’ Privacy

Do you think your phone service provider should be able to sell or share your personal data with anyone, for any reason? No? Neither do we. More importantly, neither do lawmakers, which is why in 1996 they passed a law that severely restricted what carriers can do with all this personal information. The law modified the Communications Act to add Section 222, “Privacy of customer information.” That’s why we filed a Petition for Declaratory Ruling at the Federal Communications Commission asking it to declare that the types of records AT&T is reportedly selling to the government are protected under Section 222.

We believe that phone carriers are running afoul of the Communications Act when they share customers’ call logs with third parties, even if they first purge those call logs of certain personal details such as names and phone numbers. It's important that the FCC acknowledge that the Communications Act severely restricts how carriers may use or sell sensitive information known as customer proprietary network information (CPNI) and take steps to stop this from happening in the future.

Joining us on the Petition are Benton Foundation, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Media Justice, Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Common Cause, Consumer Action], Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Free Press, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, and US PIRG.