**STATEMENT OF**

**COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN**

*Re: 1^st^ Source Information Specialists, Inc., d/b/a LocateCell.com,
Apparent Liability for Forfeiture,* Notice of Apparent Liability for
Forfeiture, EB File No. EB-05-TC-059; FRN 0014762439; NAL Acct. No.
200632170005.

Personal privacy is at the heart of our quality of life, as Congress
recognized in requiring telecommunications companies to respect their
customers' privacy. A consumer's telephone call records include some of
the most private personal information about an individual. Not
surprisingly, consumers were alarmed when it came to light over the past
year that their telephone records were widely available for sale on the
Internet, without their knowledge or approval, to anyone with an
Internet connection and a credit card. People felt that having their
incoming and outgoing calls available for public view was like having
their personal diaries exposed. Consumers were outraged to find that
others could learn about calls that might expose their business
transactions, doctor appointments, and personal interactions.

Strong and consistent Commission enforcement of our consumer privacy
rules is critical to restore the protections that consumers expect and
that Congress has mandated. This NAL takes aim at one of the apparent
purveyors of consumers' private telephone call records for failure to
comply with an on-going Commission investigation. LocateCell's willful
and repeated failure to fully cooperate with the Commission's subpoena
jeopardizes the Commission's investigation, and warrants the maximum
penalty for repeated non-compliance with Commission orders. The
Commission simply cannot condone failure to cooperate with an
investigation that clearly safeguards the public interest.

This NAL must also be part of a larger effort to address the widespread
availability of confidential phone records, a phenomenon highlighted in
press reports just a few months back estimating that there were dozens
of such web sites. Shining a light on the unauthorized sale of telephone
records may drive some of these providers off the Internet -- a positive
first step. Yet, companies like LocateCell appear to slip underground
with disquieting ease, which may pose a real challenge for our efforts
to assess this forfeiture, and we will need to be vigilant against the
ability of bad actors peddling unauthorized telephone records to
disappear and later resurface.

Indeed, we have a lot more work to do to ensure that consumers private
call records are adequately safeguarded. It is essential that we move
ahead with our pending rulemaking on our consumer privacy rules for
telephone companies. The mere fact that these records have been so
readily available, even though telephone companies are required to have
firewalls in place to protect consumers' private information, has raised
serious questions about the mechanisms that are in place to safeguard
the confidentiality of their consumers' information. So, our pending
rulemaking proceeding gives us an important opportunity to find ways to
tighten our rules, to ensure that phone companies are employing adequate
safeguards, and to provide greater security for these sensitive consumer
records. Every provider should be on notice that we are watching closely
and will take the action necessary to protect consumers\' privacy, and
we expect them to do the same.