Federal Communications Commission                      FCC 07-22
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER DEBORAH TAYLOR TATE
Re:  Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996:  Telecommunications Carriers’ Use of 
Customer Proprietary Network Information and Other Customer Information; IP-Enabled Services, 
Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, CC Docket No. 96-115 and WC Docket 
No. 04-36
I have said time and again that the brokerage of personal information – whether it be personal 
identity, financial records, or a list of phone calls – is intolerable.  “Pretexting” is nothing more than 
stealing; robbing consumers in a variety of slick ways of their most personal information.  Indeed the law 
places a duty on telecommunications providers to protect this information and today, we take important 
steps to better secure private customer telephone records. 
While I generally prefer market-based solutions to government intervention, I agree with my 
colleagues that the widespread actions of pretexters to obtain this type of personal customer information 
from carriers, required this action on our part.  
I fully support strict requirements governing treatment of this sensitive data.  However, I hope 
that the broad scope of our actions will not impact the ability of both companies and consumers to benefit 
from marketing information which may lead to lower prices or competitive bundled packages. An 
approach limiting the very strict “opt-in” obligations only to call detail records may have cured the 
problem at hand in a less burdensome manner.  
In the end, however, customer privacy must take precedence.  I am pleased that the rules we 
adopt today will go a long way towards closing off the avenues that information snatchers have 
repeatedly used to violate the privacy of consumer phone records.