"There are probably 100 such sites" known to security officials at Verizon Wireless that offer to sell phone records, said Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, who said Verizon is always trying to respond to abusive practices. He said that the company views all such activity as illegal and that "we have historically, and will continue to, change policies to reflect the changing nature of criminal activity," though he declined to be specific.
And, here's an interesting comment, considering that it's been revealed by USA Today that the Bush administration has had contracts with major telecom companies since 9/11, including Verizon, to collect private records of phone calls:
They might have someone on the inside at the carrier who sells the data. Spokesmen for the telephone companies said strict rules prohibiting such activity make this unlikely. But Joel Winston, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission's Financial Practices Division, said other types of data-theft investigations have shown that "finding someone on the inside to bribe is not that difficult."
Apparently not.
Phone companies view all these tactics as illegal [attempts to acquire phone records], even if they are used to help track down criminal activity. Instead, carriers say, they require court orders before releasing customer records.
Did these telecom giants receive court orders from the Bush administration in relation to their data mining contracts?
That 2005 article also states:
Federal law expressly prohibits pretexting for financial data -- which at one time was a primary means of stealing credit card and other account information -- but does not cover telephone records, which are covered by a patchwork of state and federal laws governing access to personal information.
The question remains then - which federal law did the Bush administration use to obtain these phone records and why did the phone companies, except for Qwest which was actually concerned about the legal implications, comply?
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