Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: more on FCC on CPNI
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 18:35:32 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org> Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 16:04:53 -0600 To: farber () cis upenn edu, ip <ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com> Subject: Re: IP: FCC on CPNI Dave: This is scary. The new CPNI rules published by the Bush FCC would allow widespread distribution -- and abuse -- of the intimately personal and private calling records of telephone customers. They are contrary to Federal law and should be stayed via an injunction at once. The FCC press release you forwarded says:
"Opt-Out - Use of CPNI by carriers or disclosure to their affiliated entities providing communications-related services, as well as third-party agents and joint venture partners providing communications-related services, requires a customers' knowing consent in the form of notice and opt-out approval.
Note the glib use of the self-contradictory term "opt-out approval." According to a statement signed by 38 state Attorneys General, "...§ 222 of the Act requires that carriers obtain customer "approval" prior to using, disclosing, or permitting access to personally identifiable CPNI, except in certain limited circumstances. Congress did not define this key term in the statute. The States believe that this term must be given its ordinary and natural meaning. Blacks Law Dictionary defines "approval" as [t]he act of confirming, ratifying, assenting, sanctioning, or consenting to some act or thing done by another. 'Approval' implies knowledge and exercise of discretion after knowledge." BLACKS LAW DICTIONARY 102 (6 th ed. 1990). "The opt-out approach does not satisfy the requirement of "knowledge and exercise of discretion after knowledge," because notices provided by the carriers will not be sufficient to give consumers the knowledge they need about the nature of the information being shared or sold, the circumstances under which the information will be shared or sold, and the effect or result of the sharing or selling of the information." (Full text at http://www.naag.org/features/comments-cpni.pdf) Also see the comments of more than a dozen public interest and consumer groups at http://www.epic.org/privacy/cpni/CPNI_CMN.pdf Because the current Administration has consistently shown itself to be willing to favor the will of large, monied corporations over the civil rights and privacy of individual citizens, civil rights organizations should step in to stop the abuse that will surely occur otherwise. --Brett Glass P.S. -- For a history of this issue, see EPIC's excellent synopsis at http://www.epic.org/privacy/cpni/ ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- IP: more on FCC on CPNI Dave Farber (Jul 17)