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Law must protect data

Your personal information is far too easy for the wrong people to get. And Congress needs to act to keep up with advances in technology.

James Rapp, a former data broker from Colorado, told a congressional committee last week that he could uncover the bank password of a member of Congress in one hour and easily obtain the credit-card records of another. Other witnesses complained that the sale of their cell phone records was not pursued by police because it wasn't clear that the practice was illegal.

Congress is investigating a growing problem that has eroded Americans' privacy. Though most of the data brokers called to testify at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing took the Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions about their practices, those who did speak illuminated a slimy business of stealing and selling personal information that is aggressively marketed on the Internet.

Beyond breaking into customers' online accounts, one of the primary techniques data brokers use is known as "pretexting," where a broker pretends to be the customer or a relative of the customer and convinces a customer service representative to reveal account information.

Cell phone records can be the most sensitive. As a test, the FBI paid Locatecell.com $160 for a list of an agent's cell phone calls and received it within three hours. Those records could include phone calls to undercover agents and informants. The agency was so spooked that it notified its field offices of this potential threat to the security of agents.

It seems that the law has not caught up with technology and thievery. Obviously, pretending to be someone you're not to obtain otherwise private records should be illegal. But some victims of data brokers say the laws aren't sufficiently clear and they have had a hard time getting police to act.

Of course, one reason for police intransigence might be that law enforcement agencies have been using data brokers themselves as a way to get around subpoena and warrant requirements. According to the Associated Press, data brokers have been used by the Homeland Security and Justice Departments, and local police departments in California, Florida, Georgia and Utah.

In our region, the Tampa and St. Petersburg police departments say they don't use data brokers or access private records without a subpoena, and neither do the Hillsborough or Pinellas County sheriff's offices.

The congressional hearings have highlighted a serious gap in our privacy laws that Congress has an obligation to address. The political clout of the information services industry should not be allowed to waylay this important consumer protection.

[Last modified June 26, 2006, 05:45:59]