It turns out that the Federal Communications Commission actually meant it when the agency warned that phone companies must regularly inform the Commission how they keep the calling records of consumers secure. On Tuesday the FCC proposed fining over 600 of them $20,000 apiece for not filing an annual report on their efforts to protect Customer Proprietary Network Information. CPNI includes the numbers subscribers call, when they call them,and the particular services they use, such as voice mail or call forwarding.
“I have long stressed the importance of protecting the sensitive information that telecommunications carriers collect about their customers,” interim FCC Chair Michael Copps declared with the announcement. “The broad nature of this enforcement action hopefully will ensure substantial compliance with our CPNI rules going forward as the Commission continues to make consumer privacy protection a top priority.”
The agency also says that this week it will propose smaller fines against carriers that filed these CPNI reports, but not to the Commission’s satisfaction.
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