Cingular Wins on Privacy of Phone Records

On Friday Cingular won a temporary restraining order in federal district court in Atlanta stopping two companies from selling its customers' cell phone records. Cingular filed suit alleging that the companies got their customer's records through fraud.

This has become a suddenly potent business, legal, and political issue. Recently a web site, trying to show how easy it is to buy anyone's cell phone records, bought and posted (redacted) the cell phone records of former Presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark.

Last week Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich proposed legislation that would prohibit the sale of phone records. Other states, and perhaps Congress, will likely follow in 2006.