Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 - Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit: (1) the obtaining by fraud or other unauthorized means of confidential phone records information from a telecommunications carrier or IP-enabled voice service provider (covered entity); and (2) the sale of such records by any person, including any employee of a covered entity. Exempts law enforcement agencies.

Imposes a fine and/or imprisonment for up to five years. Doubles such penalties for violations occurring in a 12-month period involving more than $100,000 or more than 50 customers of a covered entity.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2178 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2nd Session
                                S. 2178

   To make the stealing and selling of telephone records a criminal 
                                offense.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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:

``SEC. 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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