Law protects phone records

H-P scandal helped persuade Senate to pass bill last week

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 12, 2006 at midnight

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The Senate passed a bill just before adjourning Friday night that makes it a federal crime to obtain someone's private phone records through "pretext" such as impersonation.

Colorado has long been a hub for phone-record brokers, in part because it's one of only a few states in the country that doesn't regulate private investigators.

The issue came to the forefront earlier this year when a congressional committee investigated a number of data brokers, including former state Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland.

But it took the Hewlett-Packard scandal this fall to move the Senate bill along. H-P was found to have used private investigators, including a Jefferson County man, to get and examine the phone records of company directors, executives and journalists.

The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006 will make the sale or fraudulent transfer of telephone records a criminal offense subject to fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years. It now goes to President Bush for his signature into law.

Colorado law-enforcement agencies haven't taken any action against phone-record brokers here.

But Bryan Wagner, of Jefferson County, was among five people criminally charged by the California's attorney general office in October for his alleged role in impersonating H-P directors and a news reporter to obtain their telephone records.

Wagner took the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify at a congressional hearing in September. He has pleaded not guilty to identity theft and other felony charges filed in California.

Tom Dresslar, spokesman for California's attorney general's office, said Monday that the office believes existing California law covers the H-P incident "or we wouldn't have brought criminal charges" in the case. Dresslar added the federal legislation "will provide further benefits to consumers."

Rob Douglas, a Colorado information security consultant, said it has taken Congress years to pass phone-record legislation, noting he first testified before Congress on the issue in 1998. He wrote in an e-mail that he is part of an effort to work for a broader bill to protect all consumer records, but acknowledged that "will be an even tougher battle."

At a glance

• The law: Congress has passed a law that makes it a criminal offense for someone to sell or fraudulently obtain private phone records.

• Background: A similar law that bans obtaining financial records through pretext was enacted in the late 1990s. The new law came to the fore in the recent H-P scandal.

• What's next: There are moves to introduce similar legislation that would protect all consumer records.

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