Obama phone record breach creates attention

AFTER THE HIGH PROFILE case of President-elect Barack Obama's mobile phone records being read by Verizon employees, a top US senator has asked the Justice Department asking how many investigations or prosecutions the department has undertaken for violations of the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy told Matthew Friedrich, acting assistant attorney general, that data privacy breaches involving the sensitive phone records of ordinary Americans were occurring with greater frequency.

Congress passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act, which Leahy sponsored and Congress passed in 2007, to stop that sort of thing and he wonders why more people are not being prosecuted.

The law prohibits telecommunications carriers from obtaining confidential phone records by accessing customer accounts through the Internet without permission. The letter asks whether the department has found the law effective in protecting Americans' privacy. µ

L'Inq
News.com