A federal rule that orders phone companies to retain records of calls for a year-and-a-half disregards the privacy of millions of Americans, according to a coalition of civil liberties groups that is asking the Federal Communications Commission to rescind the requirement.
As currently configured, the mandate that carriers hold for 18 months the name, address and telephone number of callers, along with numbers called and the dates, times and length of each call exposes consumers to data breaches, thwarts innovation and does little to aid law enforcement, according to a petition filed Tuesday with the FCC by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on behalf of itself and 28 organizations.
The retention requirement makes little sense in an age when phone companies bill customers for unlimited or non-measured calling, compared with a time when companies itemized calls, according to EPIC, which contends that requiring companies to keep such records in bulk results in retention of information about nearly all American adults regardless of whether the government suspects them of wrongdoing.
“These telephone records not only show who consumers call and when, but can also reveal intimate details about consumers’ daily lives,” wrote Marc Rotenberg, EPIC’s president. “These records reveal close contacts and associates, and confidential relationships between individuals and their attorneys, doctors, or elected representatives.”
According to EPIC, the FCC proposed 30 years ago to eliminate the record keeping entirely before the Department of Justice asked the FCC to extend the retention period to 18 from six months, contending that retaining phone records aided investigation and prosecution of criminal conspiracies. But the value of the records has eroded as billing has changed, charges EPIC, which notes that DOJ conceded as much in comments filed with the FCC in 2006. Further, law enforcement agencies still could request that records be retained in connection with investigations, said EPIC.
Retaining calling records also amplifies the risk of data breaches, such as the one recently at the Office of Personnel Management, according to EPIC. “The best strategy to reduce the risk of an attack and to minimize the harm when such attacks do occur is to collect less sensitive information at the outset,” the petition notes.
Discontinuing the requirement that carriers retain call records for 18 months would lower the cost of record keeping and allow phone companies to compete for customers on basis of privacy, “which many believe is the market-based solution to the enormous privacy challenge confronting the nation today,” Rotenberg added.
The FCC declined to comment on the petition.
Revisions last spring to post-9/11 surveillance laws ended bulk collection of phone call metadata by the government. Under the terms of the USA Freedom Act, the National Security Agency can obtain such information from phone companies if authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But the act does not require phone companies to collect or store metadata.