Congress to put clamp on brokers

One congressman said the companies' practices 'seem to be illegal.'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers promised Wednesday to end shady practices by private data brokers who gather Americans' telephone records without subpoenas or warrants on behalf of banks, bail bondsmen and, sometimes, federal and local police.
These brokers, many of whom market aggressively on the Internet, have tricked telephone carriers into disclosing private customer information and broken into online accounts, in some cases guessing passwords that were the names of pets, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
"She has two pets, one named Rainbow and the other is Max," wrote a private detective, Donnie Tidmore of Waco, Texas, in September in an e-mail to a data broker, PDJ Investigations of Granbury, Texas.
Tidmore, who also is police chief in nearby Crawford, Texas, where President Bush owns his ranch, wanted lists of cellular calls and the Social Security number of a Virgin Mobile USA subscriber for a case. Tidmore works on the side as a private eye.
Tidmore told the AP on Wednesday the data brokers he used obtained information about targets through legal means. He acknowledged he has no idea how PDJ could obtain another person's phone records lawfully without a subpoena or warrant. Tidmore agreed that, in his capacity as police chief, he would have needed a subpoena or warrant to obtain a citizen's phone records.
Hearing
PDJ's owner, Patrick Baird, was among 11 people identified as data brokers who refused to testify Wednesday at a congressional hearing. They invoked their Fifth Amendment rights not to incriminate themselves.
"This is a crime and we need to put a stop to it," said Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The committee chairman, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said broker practices "seem to be illegal." He promised to press for a broader vote in Congress on legislation the committee has approved to outlaw efforts to impersonate customers to trick companies into revealing personal records.
"Unfortunately, brokers routinely lie to get their hands on this information," Barton said.
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