Committee Identifies Private Phone Record Brokers; Demands Data, Trade Practices

Committee Identifies Private Phone Record Brokers; Demands Data, Trade Practices

WASHINGTON - House Energy and Commerce Committee investigators have identified people behind 22 Web pages that may offer criminals, stalkers and any other paying customer the detailed records of a person's private telephone calls.

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas; the committee's ranking member, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.; Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield, R-Ky.; and the subcommittee's ranking member, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., today sent letters demanding that the companies provide information about the cottage industry.

The committee opened its investigation on Feb. 3 with similar letters to Steven Schwartz, director of First Source Information Specialists, Inc., of Tamarac, Fla., which manages the datafind.org, locatecell.com, celltolls.com, and peoplesearchamerica.com sites; and Patrick Baird, director of PDJ Services of Granbury, Texas, which manages phonebust.com.

The full committee held a Feb. 1 hearing on the matter and Chairman Barton has pledged to swiftly advance bipartisan legislation to make such transactions explicitly illegal. Barton also announced at the hearing that inquiries would be made quickly with the Web site operators. "I can only guess at the excuses that will be offered by people who profit by engaging in an obvious fraud, by invading personal privacy and by assisting criminal behavior," he told the committee.

In today's letters, Barton and the three other lawmakers wrote, "It is very disconcerting that certain online data broker companies are exploiting consumers' personal records and selling the information to whomever pays for the records. With the exception of the legitimate activities of law enforcement authorities, who in any event have legal means for acquiring such information, we struggle to find any ethical justification for marketing this data."

Letters were sent to Carlos Anderson of C.F. Anderson PI of Hollywood, Fla., which manages Anderson-pi.com; Tim Berndt, Chief Investigator of ReliaTrace Locate Services of Hudson, Wis., which manages reliatrace.com and reliablelitigation.com; Richard J. Downing, Owner of Piranha Investigations of San Leandro, Calif. and Orange Park, Fla., which manages piranhainvestigations.com; David Kacala, Director of Information Search Inc. of Baltimore, which manages information-search.com; Jody Leatherman, Director of MPIS, Inc. of Keyser, W.V., which manages publicpeoplefinder.com, nationwidesearch.com, locatepeople.com, easytolocate.com, lostpeople.com, and peoplesearchers.com; Lisa M. Loftus, Registered Agent of Efindoutthetruth.com, Inc. of Pompano Beach, Fla., which manages efindoutthetruth.com; R. Michael Martin, Registered Agent of Advanced Research, Inc. of Lake Hiawatha, N.J., which manages advsearch.com; Dana Owen, President of CSI of America of Bellingham, Wash., which manages csiofamerica.com; Skipp Porteous, President of Sherlock Investigations of New York City, which manages sherlockinvestigations.com; Jay Puller, President of AccuSearch Inc. of Cheyenne, Wyo., which manages abika.com; John Strange, President of Worldwide Investigations, Inc. of Denver, which manages usaskiptrace.com; Michele Yontef of Telcosecrets of Tuscon, Ariz., which manages telcosecrets.com; Noah Wieder, President of Intelligent eCommerce, Inc. of Encinitas, Calif., which manages iinfosearch.com and bestpeoplesearch.com; and the unidentified president or CEO of Cellulartrace.com of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. The deadline for responding is March 1.

The committee seeks the following information:

* Detailed company records, including annual gross and net revenue, the identities of top customers, a description of services provided and a list of all business/Web sites with which they are affiliated;
* All methods used by the companies to acquire the information they sell over the Internet, including whether or not employees pose as telephone company customers in order to seek account information for buyers (a practice known as "pretexting");
* The legal basis, if any, that exists for their business;
* All records related to any inquiries by law enforcement or regulatory officials; and
* An explanation of whether any effort is made to obtain consent from consumers before selling their account data or to notify them after their records have been procured or sold.

The primary text of one of the letters follows below and the other letters are very similar. All 14 letters are available in their entirety at http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/letters/letters.htm.

Mr. R. Michael Martin
Registered Agent
Advanced Research, Inc.
32 North Beverwyck Road
Lake Hiawatha, NJ 01034

Dear Mr. Martin:

We write to request information relating to the business activities of Advanced Research, Inc. (ARI). It is our understanding that ARI owns and operates a "data broker" Web site, named advsearch.com. According to numerous press reports, many data broker Web sites acquire and sell consumers' personal cell phone records and other personal data, without the knowledge or consent of the owners of those cell phone numbers. Even cell phone roaming records are being sold, giving purchasers not only the numbers called, and their dates and times, but also the city and state from which those mobile calls were made.

In light of these disturbing press reports, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, pursuant to its jurisdiction over telecommunications, the Internet, consumer protection, and interstate commerce, has commenced an investigation of these activities to determine exactly how this data is being acquired and sold.

According to your Internet Web site, and the Web sites of other companies that sell such information, various components of an individual's personal profile and activities, including cell phone records, are for sale. For example, for a relatively modest fee, a purchaser can get access to: itemized incoming and outgoing call logs for cell phone numbers, landline numbers, or voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) numbers; unpublished phone numbers; addresses; and other personal data - without any notice to and consent by the owners of those numbers.

In essence, within literally a matter of hours, someone who purchases such information from a data broker Web site can gain unauthorized access to an individual's daily calls and contacts, home and billing addresses, and other valuable confidential information. It is very disconcerting that certain online data broker companies are exploiting consumers' personal records and selling the information to whomever pays for the records. With the exception of the legitimate activities of law enforcement authorities, who in any event have legal means for acquiring such information, we struggle to find any ethical justification for marketing this data.

Thus, in an effort to learn more about ARI's business and activities related to the sale of cell phone related records and other personal data, we are writing to you today to seek additional information to assist with this review. We request that, pursuant to Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, you provide the following records and information detailed below on or before Wednesday, March 1, 2006:

1. Describe the services that are provided by ARI.
2. List and describe all businesses (including Internet Web sites) owned by, associated with, or otherwise related to, ARI that sell consumer cell phone related records and other personal data. Along with the description of each such business, provide: 1) a description of the services offered by the business; 2) the date the business was founded or purchased, and if purchased, from whom; 3) a list of all individuals who have an ownership interest in the business; 4) a list of the names and contact information for all corporate officers and executives, including telephone numbers and email addresses; 5) a list of the names of all individuals employed or otherwise compensated for his services by the business; 6) the physical location and address of the business' headquarters and all other places of business; and, 7) the annual gross and net revenue generated by the business for each calendar year since its inception.
3. List and describe in detail all methods by which ARI (and any of its related businesses) acquires the personal cell phone records and other data associated with a given cell phone number.
4. Do the employees of ARI (or any of its related businesses) pose as customers seeking information about their own accounts ("pretexting") to obtain the data being purchased by a ARI customer? Does ARI (or any of its related businesses) obtain access to cell phone company databases through computer hacking, impersonation of phone company employees or government agents, or other unauthorized and fraudulent means?
5. List all individuals or businesses that provide ARI (or its related businesses) personal cell phone records and other data associated with a given cell phone number. For each individual or business, describe the nature of the relationship with ARI (or its related businesses), the compensation arrangement with ARI, and the amount or type of compensation provided by ARI.
6. For ARI and each of its related data broker businesses or Web sites, list the names of all employees, agents, consultants, and other individuals who work for or provide services to the company or Web site.
7. Has ARI conducted, through an examination by either in-house or outside counsel, an analysis of the legal implications and risks of acquiring and selling the personal cell phone records and other data associated with a given cell phone number? If so, provide a copy of all such legal opinions provided to, or produced for, ARI or its related businesses.
8. By calendar year since 2000, list the names of the top 20 customers, by revenue, for each of ARI's data broker Web sites. With each customer listed, and for each calendar year, provide the total dollar amount paid by the customer to the data broker.
9. All records related to the methods by which ARI and its related data broker Web sites procure and sell telephone records, including but not limited to all contracts regarding such procurements.
10. All records related to any inquiries by law enforcement or regulatory officials regarding the procurement and sale of telephone records.
11. All company policy guidelines, employee manuals, or other instructions regarding the procurement and sale of telephone records, and all records related thereto.
12. Do ARI and its related data broker Web sites obtain the consent of the owner of a phone number prior to procuring and selling records related to that phone number? Do ARI and its related data broker Web sites ever notify the owner of a phone number that his records have been procured and sold? If yes, describe when and why.

Additionally, Committee investigators will be contacting you within the next week to arrange interviews with you and other company officers and employees.

Sincerely,

Joe Barton
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Commerce

John D. Dingell
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

Ed Whitfield
Chairman
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Bart Stupak
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/02152006_1779.htm