From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Records: Public or Private?
Date: 15 Nov 92 20:25:35 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 849, Message 1 of 13

(Steven A Rubin) sar1952@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu wrote and asked about
phone records:

> I am trying to find out if the customer records the RBOCs keep on what
> exchanges customers call is public record.  Also, are long distance
> records public?

It depends what you mean by public record.  If you mean, can you
typically walk into an RBOC or IXC and ask to see the calling records
of someone, then the answer I presume is usually no.  If you mean, if
you walk in with enough money in your pockets, are the RBOCs and the
IXCs able to give you the information, the answer is yes.  A program
on bounty hunters (that is, people tracking down people who have
skipped bail) shows the bounty hunter calling up PacBell or GTE and
getting the information necessary to track someone down.  I do not
believe any money was exchanged.  If you want to know if your records
are confidential, the answer is definitely no.  If you want
confidentiality, go to a pay phone and pay with cash or a stored value
card where available.

While I do not claim to have any knowledge of individual states, the
following are the federal rules.  (BTW, this information is not new;
PAT must have missed it or disregarded.  If you want the exact FCC
ruling number and the precise section of the ECPA, I would search the
archives in late February or March, 1992).

The ECPA allows transactional information, as opposed to the content
of the calls, to disclosed to any non-governmental organization or
person.  Government has to get a court order.

The FCC has ruled that the IXCs *must* share information transactional
information with other IXCs.  Their reasoning is that by sharing info,
the oligopolies will lower prices.  (I don't believe it for a minute).

An interesting aside to this conversation is who owns the information
when you call an 800 or 900 number?  LL Bean, for example, believes
that since they pay for the call, they should own the data.  Their
carrier says that since they carried the call, they should.  At
dispute is whether the carrier can sell information about who calls LL
Bean to LL Bean's competitors.  I think that neither of them should
have the right to do anything with it since I did not give them
permission.  So to that end I don't use 800 numbers.

> [Moderator's Note: No sir, they are not! They are proprietary records
> of the telco, released only to the customer or by subpoena to law
> enforcement agencies, etc. ...
> But other than for billing and/or investigative purposes *no one* is
> to get records of your calls.   PAT]

Not true according to the ECPA.  Read it.

Joe Konstan <konstan@cs.umn.edu> writes:

> Didn't we have a discussion about this some six months ago.

We did.

> that the upshot was that LONG DISTANCE call records had to be
> disclosed by your long distance company to any other long distance
> companies to "help them effectively compete" for your business.

> [Moderator's Note: I do not think other LD companies can get your call
> records, name, address or phone number for any reason other than
> billing purposes, at least not legally.

They are required to be given access by the FCC.  The only exception
is if you have 25 or more lines.  Big business likes it privacy.


David