The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006 was passed unanimously by Congress last year, following the Hewlett-Packard Co spying scandal, but was delayed and only made it to the President’s desk recently.
TRAPPA makes it illegal to attempt to obtain confidential phone records from phone companies by making false or fraudulent statements or representations. It also makes it illegal to try to buy or sell such records.
The law covers IP telephony as well as regular telephony. It does not contain any provisions that would require service providers to safeguard their customers’ data, which had been asked for by some lawmakers.
It was already illegal in the US to attempt to gain access to confidential financial records without permission, but Congress only started looking at phone pretexting in earnest after the furore over HP’s investigation of its directors and certain business reporters.
Last summer, it emerged that HP had hired private investigators to access the telephone records of members of its board of directors and reporters, in order to sniff out a board-level leak at the company.
Several former HP employees and PIs face criminal charges in California under that state’s privacy laws. One has already pleaded guilty to federal charges relating to the campaign.
