Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders
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Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.
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The F.B.I. improperly obtained thousands of records without prior judicial approval, a report said today.
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The Federal Communications Commission said yesterday that the federal government, not states, has the authority to regulate phone service provided over the Internet.
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In contrast to AT&T, company says it's not interested in installing filters on its network or inspecting packets for possible piracy, citing concerns about customer privacy.
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Verizon Wireless said on Thursday it reversed an earlier refusal to allow an abortion rights advocacy group to set up a text message alert system with subscribers and changed its policy on such messaging.
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The beleaguered provider of telephone service over Internet connections said that it had settled a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon for a maximum of $120 million.
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Spreadsheet with limited data on more than 5,000 wireless subscribers was accidentally e-mailed to other customers.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a penalty and reimburse users who were disconnected for "excessive" use of a cellular broadband service that was marketed as allowing "unlimited" use, New York's state attorney general announced Tuesday.
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday sidestepped a dispute over whether Internet providers can be forced to identify subscribers illegally swapping music and movies online.    The subject, however, may be back at the court soon...
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Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications, two of the country&#39;s biggest cell phone operators, said yesterday that they planned to drop their lawsuits against each other.
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(InfoWorld) - A U.S. district judge has struck down a part of the anti-terrorism-inspired Patriot Act that requires telephone and Internet service providers to turn over records to the government without telling customers. Judge Victor Marrero, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled Thursday that the Patriot Act provision that allows the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation toÂ obtain ISP and telecom subscribers' billing, calling, and Web surfing recordsÂ without court approval violates the U.S. Constitution. Marrero ordered the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to stop issuing so-calledÂ national security letters, or NSLs, requiring ISPs to turn over subscriber records. The NSL program prohibited ISPs from telling customers that they were being investigated. Marrero delayed the order pending a DOJ appeal of his decision. The NSL program under the Patriot Act violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a restraint on free speech, the judge said in his 107-page order. The program also bypasses judicial oversight of the requests, Marrero said. The NSL program could allow the FBI to unmask the identity of Internet users posting anonymous comments, obtain all of the e-mail messages of an Internet user, and even find out all the Web sites a user has visited, Marrero said. "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual's personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association -- particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies -- a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of NSLs is subject to the safeguards of public accountability," the judge wrote. The DOJ is reviewing the decision and considering its options, a spokesman said. The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI, praised Marrero's decision. "Courts have a constitutionally mandated role to play when national security policies infringe on First Amendment rights," Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement. "A statute that allows the FBI to silence people without meaningful judicial oversight is unconstitutional." The U.S. Congress passed the Patriot Act less than two months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Congress, under pressure from President George Bush, reauthorized the Patriot Act in 2006. Many civil liberties groups have criticized the law for being overly broad and targeting innocent U.S. residents. Marrero in 2004 ruled that the NSL provisions of the Patriot Act violated the Constitution because they amounted to unreasonable search and seizure. After the 2006 revisions to the Patriot Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sent the case back to Marrero for a ruling on whether the NSL provisions were still unconstitutional. The FBI's use of the NSL program, which existed before the Patriot Act, has ballooned since the law was passed, Marrero noted. In 2000, the FBI issued about 8,500 NSL requests, and the number of requests rose to 56,000 in 2004, he wrote. The NSL program's "most troubling" aspect, Marrero wrote, is that it attempts to bypass judicial review of law enforcement requests. The program "reflects an attempt by Congress and the executive to infringe upon the judiciary's designated role under the Constitution," he wrote.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;has settled a complaint with a Web-based company it accused of selling people&#39;s telephone records without permission, the agency said Monday.The settlement with CEO Group, doing business as Check Em Out, bars the company and its operator Scott Joseph from marketing or selling phone records, and it requires the company to give up $25,000 of its profits from selling phone records. Selling phone records to third parties is illegal under federal law, the FTC had charged.The FTC in May 2006 filed complaints in U.S. court against five Web-based companies that obtained and sold confidential phone records to third parties. In addition to the settlement with CEO Group, the FTC has settled two other cases and obtained a default judgment against a fourth company. The complaint against the fifth company is still active.The FTC&#39;s complaints came after complaints from privacy groups and members of the U.S. Congress about pretexting, when someone obtains a telephone customers&#39; records without permission under false pretexts. In many cases, companies offering phone records over the Internet were calling telephone carriers and pretending to be the targeted customer. In September 2006,&#160;Hewlett-Packard revealed it had been spying on some of its board members and journalists in an attempt to uncover the source of boardroom leaks, and HP officials later said their investigators had used pretexting to obtain phone records.The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits customers&#39; phone records from being disclosed unless &quot;upon affirmative written request by the customer.&quot; The FTC charged the five Web-based companies of engaging in unfair business practices.The settlement with CEO Group prohibits it from obtaining, marketing or selling consumer phone records or other consumer personal information except where allowed by law, the FTC said in a news release. The settlement, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, includes a judgment of $222,381, the amount the company earned by selling phone records, but the defendants said they were able to pay only $25,000. If the court finds that the defendants misrepresented their finances, the entire amount will be due, the FTC said.
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon Wireless has encountered strong opposition for its request that an appeals court overturn U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction rules on a portion of wireless spectrum. Verizon Wireless, in a brief filed Monday, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the FCC's decision to require so-calledÂ open-access rulesÂ on about a third of the 62MHz of spectrum in theÂ 700MHz band scheduled to be auctioned in January. The FCC voted in July to require that the winner of 22MHz of spectrum allow any wireless devices to connect to the network, meaning wireless telephone customers could bring their handset devices from other carriers. The FCC also prohibited the winning bidder on the 22MHz block of spectrum from blocking or slowing wireless and Web content from competitors. Those rules are "arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law," Verizon Wireless said in its brief. Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis said the company will let the brief "speak for itself." Media reform group Free Press, a supporter of the open-access rules, accused Verizon Wireless of sending "lawyers, FUD and money" in an attempt to overturn the FCC's decision. The FCC's open-access rules were a "small step on the long road to breaking up the anticompetitive, anticonsumer oligopoly that controls almost every level of the wireless marketplace," Free Press said in a statement. Frontline Wireless, another supporter of the open-access rules, said in a statement that Verizon's lawsuit "throws a wrench into the auction to promote competition and innovation for consumers." Google also criticized Verizon's lawsuit. The open-access rules are "a big step for consumer choice and competition," Chris Sacca, Google's head of special initiatives, wrote on Google's public policy blog. "Apparently, one of the nation's major existing wireless carriers doesn't think consumers deserve more choices." The wireless spectrum is a valuable public resource, Sacca added. "The nation's spectrum airwaves are not the birthright of any one company," he wrote. The 700MHz spectrum is being abandoned by U.S. television stations after Congress has required them to move from analog to all-digital broadcasts by February 2009. Many tech, broadband and wireless vendors are eyeing the spectrum for next-generation wireless and broadband services; wireless signals can travel about four times farther in the 700MHz band as signals in higher bands. Many groups calling forÂ net-neutrality laws for broadband providersÂ have suggested that the 700MHz band is the best chance in the coming years for a third broadband service that competes with cable and telecom providers. The open-access rules, similar to net-neutrality rules, could help foster a third competitor, but many open-access supporters wanted the FCC to also require the winning bidding to provide wholesale access to competitors at wholesale prices. Verizon Wireless and other critics have suggested the open-access rules will limit the options for the spectrum. The rules could drive down the price the U.S. government gets for the spectrum, and they could discourage the winning bidder from rolling out innovative new services on the spectrum, critics have said.
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LONDON -- Vodafone Group PLC on Monday denied a newspaper report it is considering making a $160 billion bid for its U.S. partner in the wireless phone business, Verizon Communications Inc.
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The Supreme Court put new limits on antitrust lawsuits, throwing out a case that accused Verizon Communications and other local-telephone companies of agreeing not to compete in each other's home territories.
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A federal judge in New Jersey granted the injuction to Verizon Wireless, though the carrier did not get the $150,000 in damages it was seeking.
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In an Aug. 29 story about a permanent injunction against a Rhode Island man who sent unsolicited text messages to Verizon Wireless cell phone customers, The Associated Press erroneously reported the date of the federal court action. The injunction was granted Aug. 23, not Aug. 27.