Obama Cell Phone Mishap Prompts Leahy Letter
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy wrote to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich on Monday requesting statistics on the number of prosecutions and/or investigations the Justice Department has undertaken to date pursuant to the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act -- a 2007 statute that Leahy co-sponsored to address the growing number of data breaches involving sensitive phone records. He also asked Friedrich to state whether the agency has found the law effective in protecting Americans' privacy.
Leahy's letter came on the heels of recent news report that employees of Verizon Wireless improperly "accessed and viewed" the personal cell phone records of President-elect Barack Obama. Even though the individuals involved in the incident have been fired, the larger problem remains, the senator stated. "Cell phone records provide a wealth of sensitive personal data that can be of great use to criminals, and the unauthorized disclosure of these records can further acts of domestic violence and compromise the safety of law enforcement officers and their families," he wrote.
The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act amended the federal criminal code to expressly prohibit a telecommunications carrier from obtaining confidential phone records by accessing customer accounts through the Internet, or by fraudulent computer-related activities, without prior authorization. Read more on that topic here.
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus