A Massachusetts Congressmember today denounced the Federal Communications Commission for "taking a pass" on investigating reports that the nation's top telephone companies handed over consumer phone data records to the National Security Agency (NSA).

"If the oversight body that monitors our nation’s communications is stepping aside then Congress must step in," Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat, declared on his Web site.

Last week Markey sent a letter to FCC Chair Kevin Martin, a Republican, asking the agency to follow up on USA Today's May 11th story that AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon have disclosed millions of consumer records to the NSA. On May 15th, Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, also called for an FCC investigation. Since then all three companies have denied the charges.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has called for the Federal Communications Commission to start an inquiry into whether telephone companies acted legally by allegedly handing over millions of records to the government.

"We need to be certain that the companies over which the FCC has public interest oversight have not gone – or been asked to go – to a place where they should not be," Copps said in a statement issued on May 15th.

USA Today reported on Thursday, May 11th, that AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon have been providing the National Security Agency with the customer telephone records of tens of millions of Americans. Today BellSouth denied that it gave phone data to the government.

With oral arguments for a Federal suit against their ruling scheduled for Friday, the FCC today unanimously reaffirmed its deadline for broadband wiretapping compliance: May 14th, 2007. That is when all ISPs and Internet telephone service (VOiP) providers will have to comply with the Communications Assistance Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

The 1994 law requires digital telephone networks to make their systems accessible to government wiretapping. In August of 2004 the FCC extended the law to ISPs and VOiPs, sparking a wave of protest from universities, smaller providers, and civil liberties groups (see LL-FCC, 3-26-2006).

After months of deliberation and delay, the FCC has adopted guidelines to implement enforcement of the Junk Fax Protection Act, which regulates sending unsolicited faxes to the public.

The new rules, announced on Thursday, April 6, hone in on the most contentious part of the 2005 law—a definition of potential fax recipients with whom the faxer has an "Established Business Relationship" (EBR).

Companies may not send unsolicited commercial faxes to the public. But they may send them to EBRs, lengthily defined by the FCC as parties with "a prior or existing relationship formed by a voluntary two-way communication between a person or entity and a business or residential subscriber with or without an exchange of consideration, on the basis of an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction by the business or residential subscriber regarding products or services offered by such person or entity, which relationship has not been previously terminated by either party."

Since early January, when the Federal Communications Commission asked for comments on its 2005 ruling ordering schools and businesses to give the police access to their Internet systems, almost three dozen parties have filed opinions on the matter.

Most of the remarks can be summarized in three words: No, no, and no.

The FCC wants broadband to obey the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), originally written to make telephone companies open up their digital lines to the cops (see LL-FCC, January 15, 2006).

Despite opposition from big carriers like Bellsouth and Verizon, the FCC will consider whether tougher privacy rules are needed to protect sensitive customer data held by cell phone companies.

On Friday, February 10th, the Commission granted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requested by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The NPRM asks for public comment on how to prevent "pretexting"—the process of surreptitiously getting customer records from phone companies, then offering the data for sale on the Web or elsewhere.

Over the last month the FCC has cited several prominent "data brokers" $10,000 each for refusing to fully respond to subpoenas about their activities. On January 30th the Commission warned AT&T and Allitel that they may not be in compliance with protocols necessary to guard the personal records of their customers, therefore liable for $100,000 penalties.

Calling the practice a "significant privacy invasion," Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin has asked Congress to outlaw the commercial sale of phone records. Martin appeared before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday, February 1st to make recommendations for stemming the widespread commercial availability of phone data.

Over the last two weeks the FCC has cited several prominent "data brokers" for refusing to fully respond to subpoenas about their activities. On January 30th the Commission warned AT&T and Allitel that they may not be in compliance with protocols necessary to guard the personal records of their customers, therefore liable for $100,000 penalties.