Senator Fasano’s Cell Phone Legislation Passes State Senate

May 2, 2006

Legislation that prohibits the sale or solicitation of an individual’s telephone records unanimously passed the state Senate last night. The issue was brought to the attention of the General Assembly by state Senator Len Fasano (R-North Haven) who discovered a variety of web-based businesses that were illegally selling personal phone records. The state House of Representatives had also unanimously approved sHB 5669, which now awaits the signature of Governor M. Jodi Rell to become law.

“I am very happy that my colleagues in both the Senate and the House recognized this intrusive nature of this practice and voted in favor of this legislation. I would also like to specifically thank Senator John McKinney (R-Fairfield) and Senator Andrew Roraback (R-Goshen) who worked actively to get this legislation passed,” said Senator Fasano, who serves on the Committee on General Law, where the bill originated. “A person’s call record is as private as his or her financial or medical records and should not be up for sale.”

After this matter was brought to the public’s attention at a Senate Republican press conference in mid-January, several of the web-sites that had been selling personal sell phone records for a nominal fee ceased operations. Included in these shut-downs was www.locatecell.com, which a Senate Republican staffer had accessed and attempted to purchase Senator Fasano’s cell phone records as an experiment. Several major cell phone companies also filed injunctions against the companies peddling the private information.

“I would like to thank the cell phone companies who acted so swiftly to help protect the privacy of Connecticut citizens. They did their part to see that this personal information was not disclosed, and now we are doing our part by making it illegal to sell a customer’s telephone record without authorization,” continued Senator Fasano. “Further, this bill also prohibits receiving telephone records obtained by fraudulent, deceptive, or false means and requires telephone companies in the state to establish procedures to protect against unauthorized or fraudulent disclosure of phone record.”

Senator Fasano is Minority Leader and represents the 34th District communities of North Haven, East Haven, and Wallingford.