# Phone company asking for permission to access your account records **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071 "2006-09-25T14:57:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/1 "2006-09-25T14:57:07Z")
Whenever I call Verizon they ask for permission to access my account records. They’re the phone company, wouldn’t everyone expect them to access (and in fact create) my account records? Is there some law that compels them to ask permission? You can see the online permission request here: [http://www22.verizon.com/Foryourhome/ProductandService.aspx](http://www22.verizon.com/Foryourhome/ProductandService.aspx) Click on Add or Change Service. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/2 "2006-09-25T15:24:35Z")
Fromer VZ manager here. Every quarter we all received the security bulletin which told us all how many people got fired for improper access to customer records. Most of the time it was for things like a guy checking up on an ex-girl friend’s phone records or modifying a bill to give a friend a reduced rate. In order to make it easier to get rid of associates (who are mostly CWA represented) that do this kind of thing, I believe that language was added to the last contract to allow management to terminate anybody who doesn’t get the customer’s permission to view his or her records. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/3 "2006-09-25T15:28:40Z")
I figured it was something like that. Shame they have ask on every single one of thousands of calls, and I’m sure employees still secretly snoop if sufficiently motivated. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/4 "2006-09-25T17:18:17Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] They’re the phone company, wouldn’t everyone expect them to access (and in fact create) my account records? [/QUOTE] [Ernestine]“We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company.”[/Ernestine] ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/5 "2006-09-25T18:29:24Z")
This has turned into a huge issue in the last year, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Illegitimately obtaining telephone account records has grown into a large industry; for more information google pretexting, CPNI, or look in recent news for what’s happened at HP’s board of directors. All kinds of people, ranging from private investigators to shady managers at large corporations have been caught obtaining information that the FCC has determined to be confidential and proprietary. Fines for improperly releasing CPNI start in the hundred thousand dollar range, and go up from there. Although a carrier cannot guarantee that a well informed pretextor cannot trick their employee into divulging this information, they can limit their liability by demonstrating that they exercised a reasonable amount of care in determining that the caller did, in fact have the right to request this information and wished it to be viewed or released. This includes verification of identity by means of a password or PIN, and verbal assent to look at the records. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-company-asking-for-permission-to-access-your-account-records/374071/6 "2006-09-25T19:19:28Z")
[QUOTE=SuperNelson] Although a carrier cannot guarantee that a well informed pretextor cannot trick their employee into divulging this information, they can limit their liability by demonstrating that they exercised a reasonable amount of care in determining that the caller did, in fact have the right to request this information and wished it to be viewed or released. This includes verification of identity by means of a password or PIN, and verbal assent to look at the records. [/QUOTE] Do carriers allow customers the option of password protecting their records? Asking a caller if the carrier can access his/her records is meaningless, if the caller isn’t the actual customer. Without meaningful safeguards, there is no privacy.