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back to article Judge bars unauthorized sales of phone records

In a victory for privacy advocates, a federal judge has ordered a US company to pay almost $200,000 and barred it from selling the phone records of individuals' phone records without their permission. US District Judge William F. Downes of Wyoming entered a permanent injunction against a company called AccuSearch and its …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Oh my

    Phone records have phone records? Sounds complex! ;)

    PH because she probably thinks that phone records are made of vinyl.

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  2. Andy S

    doesn't the US

    Have any sort of data protection laws? How can there be any doubt that selling the phone records of a private individual, to anybody who can afford, is illegal?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oxymoron?

    "...Privacy watchdogs...Federal..."

    Shum mishtake, shurely?

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wouldn't it be nice

    If the UK judges start striking down Blair laws that violate Article 8, and maybe go after the DVLA for selling private data.

    Can't go saying people have a fundamental right to privacy, then make a law that says 'head of food standards agency can write himself an order to demand secret monitoring of all communications between X and Y'.

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  5. Falk Bleyl

    How can there even be an argument

    Only in a society where right is seen as wrong and wrong as right could there even be a discussion about this being legal. It is really a shame when individuals or organisations try to see what they can get away with legally rather than staying away from activities that are definitely immoral (even without the 'legality test).

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  6. kain preacher

    ID theft

    you had to go after them for ID theft because they were lying about who they are. But that was a California law that it was ID theft not sure about the rest of the nation.

    Calfornia is unique in the fact that they are apply ID theft to any one that use a some elses ID to commit a crime. Even credit card fraud.

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  7. Keith Williams
    Thumb Up

    ID Theft

    To me, Fraud is lying to obtain something to which you are not rightfully entitled. Therefore, you are committing fraud whenever you misrepresent yourself as a person who is entitled to have those phone records.

    I also wonder why the phone companies are willing to beleive that so many people need a history of their inbound and outbound phone calls.

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  8. Morely Dotes

    @ Dan Goodin and @ Andy S

    "Attempts to reach AccuSearch and Patel for comment were unsuccessful."

    Why don't you just use their Web site to buy their phone records? I bet you'd hear from them pretty damn quickly.

    And Andy, the answer is no, the US does not have any sort of laws to protect the privacy of private citizens. Only the privacy of Government officers and corporations are protected. It's the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules.

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