II 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2177 

To make the sale or fraudulent transfer of telephone records a criminal 

offense. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 18, 2006 

Mr. DURBIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To make the sale or fraudulent transfer of telephone records 

a criminal offense. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Phone Records Protec5 tion Act of 2006’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SALE OR TRANSFER OF TELE7 PHONE RECORDS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title 18, United States Code, is 

9 amended by inserting after chapter 123 the following new 

10 chapter: 
2 

•S 2177 IS

1 ‘‘CHAPTER 124—TELEPHONE RECORDS 

‘‘Sec. 

‘‘2801. Prohibition on sale or transfer of telephone records. 

2 ‘‘§ 2801. Prohibition on sale or transfer of telephone 

3 records 

4 ‘‘(a) CRIMINAL VIOLATION.—Whoever knowingly and 

5 intentionally sells or fraudulently transfers or uses, or at6 tempts to sell or fraudulently transfer or use, the records 

7 of a customer of a telephone service provider shall be fined 

8 in accordance with this title, imprisoned for not more than 

9 10 years, or both. 

10 ‘‘(b) NONAPPLICABILITY TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

11 AGENCIES.—Subsection (a) shall not prevent any action 

12 by a law enforcement agency, or any officer, employee, or 

13 agent of such agency, to obtain the records of a customer 

14 of a telephone service provider in connection with the per15 formance of the official duties of the agency. 

16 ‘‘(c) EXCEPTION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT RE17 QUESTS.—A telephone service provider, or any employee 

18 thereof, shall not be in violation of subsection (a) if such 

19 provider, upon request, transfers or otherwise provides to 

20 a law enforcement agency, or any officer, employee, or 

21 agent of such agency the records of a customer of such 

22 provider. 

23 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
3 

•S 2177 IS

1 ‘‘(1) RECORDS OF A CUSTOMER.—The term 

2 ‘records of a customer’ means any data or informa3 tion associated with an individual contained in a 

4 database, networked or integrated databases, or 

5 other data system of a telephone service provider. 

6 ‘‘(2) TELEPHONE SERVICE.—The term ‘tele7 phone service’— 

8 ‘‘(A) has the same meaning given the term 

9 ‘telecommunications service’ in section 3 of the 

10 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153); 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(B) includes any form of wireless tele13 phone service, including— 

14 ‘‘(i) cellular telephone service; 

15 ‘‘(ii) broadband Personal Communica16 tion Service (‘PCS’) telephone service; 

17 ‘‘(iii) Covered Specialized Mobile 

18 Radio (‘SMR’) service; and 

19 ‘‘(iv) any successor service to such 

20 service (including so-called next generation 

21 or third generation service). 

22 ‘‘(3) TELEPHONE SERVICE PROVIDER.—The 

23 term ‘telephone service provider’ has the same mean24 ing given the term ‘telecommunications carrier’ in 
4 

•S 2177 IS

1 section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

2 U.S.C. 153).’’. 

3 (b) AMENDMENT TO PART ANALYSIS.—The table of 

4 chapters at the beginning of part I of title 18, United 

5 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat6 ing to chapter 123 the following new item: 

‘‘124. Prohibition on sale of telephone records ...................... 2801’’. 

Æ