FCC Allows Bells to Sell Your Telephone Usage Data

Devistater writes "Spotted on hardocp. The FCC said in a ruling yesterday that telephone companies can sell your name, who you call, and for how long you talk to anyone who is an "affiliate." No longer is this required to be an opt in marketing approach, now its OPT OUT. Sounds like spam is coming to the telephone world, and what an egregious breach of privacy. Article on PCWorld has some of the details." There's also a short Reuters story and a good one on ecommercetimes.com.

Comments

So where do you opt out?

[micromoog]

Better opt out right away . . . anybody know how?

Re:So where do you opt out?

[gilroy]

EPIC's page ( http://www.epic.org/privacy/cpni/) has some info. For Verizon, call (866) 483-9600 and wade through a tedious phone tree (about four minutes, but have your bill handy).

Qwest

[jhunsake]

For those who have Qwest, look here.

Voice your complaints!

[sup4hleet]

Chairman Michael K. Powell: mpowell@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy: kabernat@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: mcopps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: kjmweb@fcc.gov

Customer Service Standards:
Send your comments to:OMDCSSTF@fcc.gov

General e-mail should be sent to: FCCINFO@FCC.GOV

Remember: a complaint should be a well thoughtout, polite, disagreement NOT a psychotic rant.

Re:Simple solution...

[bludstone]

actually the phrase is "please put me on your 'Do Not Call' list."

I do that. Sometimes i tell them im interested and ask them to hold, put down the phone, and go back to whatever i was doing. Check back when i get bored, see if they are still on the line :)

Re:Simple solution...

[mosch]

If you have a few minutes to spare, what's even better is to say 'I'm making an official request for your no-call policy, as I am entitled to by law. I'd like to provide you with all the information neccessary for you to mail me a copy of your no-call policy.'

At this point they may hang up, or get confused and put you on with a supervisor who will know about this and take the information.

Now that they have the information, request to be added to their No-Call, and No-Sell lists. By this point you've cost them a lot of phone time, often with a supervisor, plus they usually actually do mail you the no-call policy, and you get blacklisted for being a pain in the ass who knows the law, thus helping make sure you don't get any more calls.

Don't blame the FCC

[Nintendork]

Blame the US Court of Appeals. They're the ones that instructed the FCC to use an opt-out method.

Taken from Chairman Powell's public statement:
"But we conclude, albeit somewhat reluctantly, that under the court's constitutional analysis, companies may satisfy the somewhat less stringent requirement of giving consumers the chance to "opt-out" of intracompany communications-related use of CPNI.(1)

(1) The court instructed the Commission to consider an opt-out strategy, which the court concluded was "an obvious and substantially less restrictive alternative" to opt-in. U.S. West v. FCC, 182 F.3d 1224, 1238 (10th Cir. 1999), cert. denied 530 U.S. 1213 (2000)"

Contact the Court of Appeals and complain. Also, contact your local representative.

-Lucas

Re:Don't blame the FCC

[MagnaMark]

Thanks for pointing this out. All the posters who are blaming the FCC are missing the point. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is to blame for this.

In 1999, This court vacated the FCC's previous opt-in only policy in this ruling. This means that the FCC used to have an opt-in only policy but the court forced the FCC to change it in favor of commercial interests.

I confess that my first reaction was to get pissed at the FCC, but it ain't that simple.

A couple of interesting facts about the 10th circuit appeals case:

Lawrence Tribe, the Harvard Professor of Bush v. Gore 2000 election fame, was the lead attorney for the Telecoms against the FCC.

The Supreme Court failed to grant this case cert., meaning that they refused to consider the appeal to this ruling. It'll be interesting to see what happens if this new FCC ruling gets challenged in court and then whether the Supreme Court will take on the CPNI privacy issue then. That's when the final interpretation will be determined.

In the meantime, I too encourage everyone who wants the opt-in policy back to contact your Senators and Representatives.

Re:Don't blame the FCC

[Nintendork]

This is another good example of the bells' corruption . I work for the IPTA. We recently had a meeting where we discussed all these types of charges. There's a fedral charge that appears on your phone bill. Usually $4 - $5. None of thet money goes to the government. The bells just worked the legal system so they could identify it as federal.

call this number to opt-out of Verizon

[fist_187]

call 1-866-483-3385

the recording goes through the legal details of it, but basically all you need is your account number (upper right of your phone bill) to opt out. and (if for some reason you want to), you have the choice of opting back in.

enjoy.

Hit 'em where it hurts

[climber]

Aside from complaining to the FCC (kudos to sub4hleet for this,) you should write your congressional reps. Here's how to find them:

US House of Representatives

US Senate

Here's some free (as in freedom) sample text for a letter:

Dear Hon. [Senator or Rep Name],

I'm writing in regards to a recent FCC ruling concerning the privacy of your telephone conversations, as well as those of your staff and your constituents. The ruling is profiled in an article in PCWorld Magazine, which is available at this Web site:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,102743,0 0.asp

The key points of the ruling are summarized in the opening paragraphs of the article:

"Phone companies now can share a consumer's private information with certain affiliates without first getting that customer's consent, a new Federal Communications Commission ruling says. Details of who customers call, when they call, and how long they talk may be shared with communications-related corporate affiliates, the ruling says. Customers can choose to keep such information private, but must initiate the request. The carrier does not have to ask permission."

I believe this ruling represents an egregious threat to my privacy, as well as the privacy of all Americans. As such, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to use the powers of your office promptly and vigorously to persuade the FCC to reverse this ruling, or (at a minimum) alter it such that it is an "Opt In" style program (in which consumers must explicitly give permission to the phone company to share this data.)

Thank you for your attention. I sincerely appreciate the efforts of you and your staff on behalf of all [Your State] - Keep up the great work!

Your Sincere Constituent,

[Your name AND address - Include your four-digit zip code extension!]

Note that you'll have to use Web-based forms to contact these folks - They like to make sure you're one of their constituents before they read your mail.

Re:Simple solution...

[Reziac]

A simpler solution: inform the telemarketer in a borderline-irritated voice, "I'm *supposed* to be on your do-not-call list!" They'll about pee themselves apologizing and will hang up posthaste, and once you hit a marketer who is using a master list, you'll suddenly find you get NO more calls.

I did this some 12-13 years ago, and since then I get maybe one or two junk calls a year (including the recorded type).

The majority of telemarketers work from a nationally-circulated master list, so if you get removed from one call center's list, you'll fall off all of their lists. Daily News or any affiliated paper is a good one to have initially remove you, as they do use a master list.

Qwest customers: You're already opted-OUT

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

If your local telco is Qwest communications (the baby bell formerly known as U S WEST) then you are already opted-out, at least for now. Quoting from their site at: http://www.qwest.com/cpni/

Qwest has withdrawn the plans it announced in the December, 2001 bill insert to share private customer account information among its different businesses. This information is referred to by federal statute as Customer Proprietary Network Information or CPNI. Qwest will not sell or disclose CPNI, except as required by law, to people authorized to offer or help customers get Qwest services, to prevent the unlawful use of services, or if the company sells that part of its business. No further action is required on your part. Thank you.

For what it's worth, I don't work for Qwest, I don't particularly like nor trust Qwest, but that URL was where they used to accept opt-out requests. I just found that notice today when I started to compose this posting.

Send Mail to Commisioner Powell

[L0neW0lf]

Here's a link to send mail to the FCC Commissioner, and (politely) tell him what you think of this ruling. http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/powell/mkp_email. html Also inform him that you shall be contacting elected officials regarding the matter.