Justice Department Wants Delay in Consumer Notifications of Phone Record Theft Posted by Bob at 01/08/07 12:38 PM

Suppose you have been a victim of so-called "pretexting," where someone posing as you has gotten your phone company to release your calling records to them. Should the phone company actually figure out they had given your calling information to someone other you – let's say a criminal – you would naturally assume they would notify you immediately, right?

Not so fast, the U.S. Department of Justice says.

The Justice Department has asked the Federal Communications Commission to include "a mechanism of delay" in the notification of consumers who have been a victim of pretexting. The FCC is in the process of writing new rules covering pretexting in the wake of a recent scandal at Hewlett-Packard, where private investigators pretexted the phone records of company officials.

Justice says it wants the delay mechanism in the name of consumer protection. Here is the Justice Department's reasoning on that – which we find a tad bit tortured, to say the least.

"Allowing for delayed consumer notification in appropriate cases enhances our ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding the loss of the data and, thereby, advances consumer protection," Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty wrote to the FCC on December 28th, 2006.

Immediate victim notification, DOJ argues, could alert the criminals, "causing them, among other things, to destroy evidence, change their behavior, and accelerate their illegal use of any data before consumers or company victims can act."

Not to put too fine a point on this, but we are beginning to wonder what they are smoking over there at the Justice Department.

Arguing it protects consumers to NOT tell them their phone records have been stolen is beyond stupid. It might allow investigators more time and leeway in tracking down the criminals, but there is no consumer benefit in delaying notification of the victims.

You can read the Justice Department letter by clicking here. Laser's Letter on the FCC and Media Regulation has a great story on the specifics of the Justice Department request, which you can read here.

DOJ proposes phone companies who discover pretexting NOT notify the consumer of the security breach until seven days after it has notified the FBI and the United States Secret Service.

If the relevant investigating agency thinks notification of victims notification could compromise its investigation, it could tell the phone company to delay it for 30 days – or longer, the DOJ letter suggests.

So how long could notification be delayed?

The letter suggests notification would only occur "when it appears that public disclosure or notice to affected customers will no longer impede or compromise a criminal investigation or national security."

The FCC needs to ignore this ridiculous request from the Justice Department. And just for good measure, the FCC should delay telling the Justice Department about its decision.

comments (0)