How safe are your telephone records?

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

Cellular and land-line telephone owners may not be aware that a number of unscrupulous companies are selling their confidential information to third parties. These telephone calling records, gathered by local, long-distance and wireless telephone companies, provide information not just on the calls you make and when you make them but also on other telephone services that you use.

Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Virginia and Wisconsin passed laws this session to stop the practice. Georgia and Washington already had laws on the books. These laws prohibit trading in telephone records, including the unauthorized buying or selling of a person's telephone information or records. Violations are considered to be an unfair trade practice, may result in a civil lawsuit to recover monetary damages, or may be classified as a crime.

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