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 STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  JONATHAN  S.  ADELSTEIN 
 Re:  Implementation  of  the  Telecommunications  Act  of  1996,  Petition  for  Rulemaking  to  Enhance  Security  and  Authentication  Standards  for  Access  to  Consumer  Proprietary  Network 
 Information,  Notice  of  Proposed  Rulemaking  (Jan.  10,  2006). 
 I  am  very  pleased  that  we  open  this  rulemaking  to  address  an  issue  of  momentous  personal  importance  to  American  consumers:  the  troublesome  proliferation  of  telephone  call  records 
 being  made  available  on  the  Internet  without  customers  knowledge  or  consent.  Last  summer,  a  watchful  public  interest  group,  the  Electronic  Privacy  Information  Center  (EPIC),  alerted  the 
 FCC  to  this  trend  and  filed  a  petition  asking  us  to  tighten  our  rules  for  protecting  consumer  call  records.  We  take  an  important  step  here  by  granting  EPICs  petition  and  issuing  this  Notice  of 
 Proposed  Rulemaking  to  find  ways  to  tighten  our  rules  and  provide  greater  security  for  these  sensitive  consumer  records. 

 Telephone  call  records  can  include  some  of  the  most  private  personal  information  about  an  individual.  Finding  out  who  people  are  calling  and  for  how  long  can  be  like  picking  someones 
 brain  about  their  friends,  plans  or  business  dealings.  Unauthorized  access  to  call  records  is  a  highly  invasive  intrusion  into  both  the  personal  and  professional  lives  of  consumers.  Disclosure 
 of  these  records  is  far  more  than  a  mere  annoyance;  indeed,  it  can  lead  to  tragic  consequences. 
 Congress  recognized  the  sensitivity  of  this  information  in  the  Telecommunications  Act  of  1996  when  it  prohibited  phone  companies  from  using  or  disclosing  customer  proprietary  network 
 information  without  the  customers  approval.  It  charged  the  Commission  with  enforcing  this  privacy  protection  and  the  Commission  has  previously  adopted  a  set  of  rules  designed  to  ensure 
 that  telephone  companies  have  effective  safeguards  in  place. 
 Telephone  companies  are  required  to  have  firewalls  in  place  to  protect  consumers  private  information  but  instead  these  records  are  blazing  all  over  the  Internet,  available  on  numerous 
 web  sites  even  as  we  issue  this  Notice.  I  appreciate  the  recent  efforts  of  several  phone  companies  to  take  legal  action  against  data  brokers.  This  is  an  important  step  to  shutting  these 
 data  brokers  down.  Still,  the  Commission  must  also  take  immediate  steps  to  ensure  that  we  have  sufficiently  strong  consumer  privacy  rules  in  place  and  that  phone  companies  are  employing 
 effective  safeguards  to  shield  this  data  from  harm.  So,  our  efforts  here  to  strengthen  our  rules  are  critical  and  time  sensitive.  We  ask  the  right  questions  in  this  Notice,  and  Im  glad  that  we  once 
 again  seek  comment  on  how  to  protect  consumer  privacy  as  communications  migrate  to  broadband  and  IP  platforms.  Our  challenge  now  will  be  to  move  quickly  to  shut  the  tap  on  this 
 information  drain. 
 I  also  support  our  efforts  to  bring  swift  enforcement  action  against  companies  that  are  violating  our  rules.  Even  as  we  look  to  improve  our  rules  and  as  Congress  considers  additional 
 safeguards,  we  must  use  our  existing  authority  to  quickly  address  abuses  of  this  private  information. 
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