I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4662 

To prohibit the obtaining of customer information from telecommunications 

carriers by false pretenses, and the sale or disclosure of such records 

obtained by false pretenses. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 31, 2006 

Mrs. BLACKBURN (for herself, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. DICKS, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. 

WEINER, Mrs. DRAKE, Mr. ROSS, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. 

REICHERT, Mrs. MUSGRAVE, Ms. HARRIS, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. GILLMOR, 

Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. POMBO, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. KLINE, Ms. 

CARSON, and Mr. DAVIS of Florida) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit the obtaining of customer information from telecommunications carriers by false pretenses, and the sale 

or disclosure of such records obtained by false pretenses. 

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 ‘‘Consumer Telephone 

5 Records Protection Act of 2006’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 
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1 (1) telephone records can be of great use to 

2 criminals because the information contained in call 

3 logs listed in such records include a wealth of per4 sonal information; 

5 (2) many call logs reveal the names of many 

6 users’ doctors, public and private relationships, busi7 ness associates, and more; 

8 (3) although other personal information, such 

9 as social security numbers may appear in public doc10 uments, which can be accessed by data brokers, the 

11 only warehouse of telephone records is located at the 

12 telephone companies themselves; and 

13 (4) telephone records may be accessed without 

14 authorization of the customer by— 

15 (A) an employee of the telephone company 

16 selling the data; 

17 (B) ‘‘pretexting’’, whereby a data broker or 

18 other person pretends to be the owner of the 

19 phone and convinces the telephone company’s 

20 employees to release the data to them; or 

21 (C) unauthorized access of accounts via the 

22 Internet; and 

23 (5) because telephone companies encourage cus24 tomers to manage their accounts online, many set up 

25 the online capability in advance. Many customers 
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1 never access their Internet accounts, however. If 

2 someone seeking the information activates the ac3 count before the customer, he or she can gain unfet4 tered access to the telephone records and call logs of 

5 that customer. 

6 SEC. 3. PRIVACY PROTECTION FOR CUSTOMER INFORMA7 TION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS. 

8 (a) PROHIBITION ON OBTAINING CUSTOMER INFOR9 MATION BY FALSE PRETENSES.—It shall be unlawful for 

10 any person to obtain or attempt to obtain, or cause to 

11 be disclosed or attempt to cause to be disclosed to any 

12 person, customer proprietary network information relating 

13 to any other person by— 

14 (1) making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent 

15 statement or representation to an officer, employee, 

16 or agent of a telecommunications carrier; or 

17 (2) by providing, through any means including 

18 the Internet, any document or other information to 

19 a telecommunications carrier or an officer, employee, 

20 or agent of a telecommunications carrier, knowing 

21 that the document or other information is forged, 

22 counterfeit, lost, or stolen, was obtained fraudulently 

23 or without the customer’s consent, or contains a 

24 false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or represen25 tation. 
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1 (b) PROHIBITION ON SOLICITATION OF A PERSON TO

2 OBTAIN CUSTOMER INFORMATION UNDER FALSE PRE3 TENSES.—It shall be unlawful to request a person to ob4 tain customer proprietary network information of a tele5 communications carrier, knowing that the person will ob6 tain, or attempt to obtain, the information from the tele7 communications carrier in the manner described in sub8 section (a). 

9 (c) PROHIBITION ON SALE OR OTHER DISCLOSURE

10 OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION OBTAINED UNDER FALSE

11 PRETENSES.—It shall be unlawful for any person to sell 

12 customer proprietary network information relating to any 

13 other person, knowing that such information was obtained 

14 in the manner described in subsection (a). 

15 (d) NONAPPLICABILITY TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

16 AGENCIES.—No provision of this section shall be con17 strued so as to prevent any action by a law enforcement 

18 agency, or any officer, employee, or agent of such agency, 

19 to obtain customer proprietary network information of a 

20 telecommunications carrier in connection with the per21 formance of official duties of the agency. 

22 SEC. 4. TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER NOTIFICATION 

23 REQUIREMENT. 

24 Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

25 U.S.C. 222) is amended— 
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1 (1) by redesignating subsection (h) as sub2 section (i); and 

3 (2) by inserting after subsection (g) the fol4 lowing new subsection: 

5 ‘‘(h) NOTICE OF VIOLATIONS.—The Commission 

6 shall by regulation require each telecommunications car7 rier to notify the customer of any incidents in which such 

8 telecommunications carrier becomes or is made aware in 

9 which customer proprietary network information relating 

10 to such customer is disclosed to someone other than the 

11 customer in violation of this section or section 3 of the 

12 Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006.’’. 

13 SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS14 SION. 

15 A violation of section 3 shall be treated as an unfair 

16 or deceptive act or practice in violation of section 5 of the 

17 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45). All of the 

18 functions and powers of the Federal Trade Commission 

19 under that Act are available to the Commission to enforce 

20 compliance by any person with such section, irrespective 

21 of whether that person is engaged in commerce or meets 

22 any other jurisdictional tests in the Federal Trade Com23 mission Act, including the power to enforce the provisions 

24 of such section in the same manner as if the violation had 
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1 been a violation of a Federal Trade Commission trade reg2 ulation rule. 

3 SEC. 6. CRIMINAL PENALTY. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever knowingly and inten5 tionally violates section 3 shall be fined in accordance with 

6 title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for not more 

7 than 5 years, or both. 

8 (b) ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR AGGRAVATED

9 CASES.—Whoever violates section 3 while violating an10 other law of the United States or as part of a pattern 

11 of any illegal activity involving more than $100,000, or 

12 more than 50 customers of a telecommunications carrier, 

13 in a 12-month period shall be fined twice the amount pro14 vided in section 3571 of title 18, or imprisoned for not 

15 more than 10 years, or both. 

16 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

17 As used in this Act, the following definitions apply: 

18 (1) CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK INFOR19 MATION.—The term ‘‘customer proprietary network 

20 information’’ has the meaning given such term in 

21 section 222(h)(1) of the Communications Act of 

22 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222(h)(1)). 

23 (2) TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER.—The 

24 term ‘‘telecommunications carrier’’ has the meaning 
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1 given such term in section 3(44) of the Communica2 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153(44)). 

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