Word: phoning
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...Since February, Congress has been investigating such so-called data brokers for the ways in which they gather their information. Some of them use people inside the phone company who are willing to divulge the data. But more commonly, these businesses obtain phone records through an illegal practice known as "pretexting," in which someone calls up the phone company and impersonates a subscriber to con the service representative into releasing copies of the records...
...remains an open question whether law enforcement obtaining the private phone records of Americans in this fashion is actually illegal. While most data brokers claim there is no specific law against the sale of phone records, as there is with banking records, and therefore it should not be illegal, the Federal Trade Commission and numerous state attorneys general disagree. Collectively, they have brought more than a dozen cases against data brokers based on state and federal statutes governing unfair and deceptive trade practices...
...Energy and Commerce Committee's probe into data brokers has been dogged by controversy. Robert Douglas, an information security consultant who runs PrivacyToday.com and was hired to do research for the committee, resigned in April because he felt allegations that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were purchasing phone records were not being investigated thoroughly enough. And a bipartisan committee bill to protect phone records by outlawing pretexting was suddenly withdrawn just before a full House vote in early May. Some Democrats suspect there may be a connection between the pulling of the bill and the recent revelations...
...said the company has "done work for municipalities, banks, mortgage and insurance companies, private companies, foreign governments, law enforcement, even the FBI." Michael Kortan, FBI spokesman, says it is possible the bureau has used companies like Advanced Research, but notes that these companies provide many services other than accessing phone records. "They offer a wide variety of compressing publicly available data that saves a lot of legwork and saves a lot of time," Kortan told TIME. While saying it did not sound plausible that the FBI has bought phone records from Advanced Research, Kortan said he hasn't looked into...
...purchased services since 1999, when he joined the company, but he understood that information was sold to the bureau before then. ?We do not sell telecommunications information any more,? he said. Martin's firm, however, is being sued by the Illinois Attorney General for obtaining and selling phone records without the consumer's consent. With regard to these charges, Martin contends that ARI is simply a middleman: "We have certification from all our researchers that everything they do is legal and they don?t tell me how they...