A Federal Communications Commission official told Congress today that FCC Chair Kevin Martin will ask the five member agency to consider new phone record privacy rules soon.

Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee, Kris Ann Montief, Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, said that Martin will "bring an order before the full Commission for its consideration this Fall" to combat "pretexting," a practice in which con-artists fool phone companies into disclosing customer calling records, then sell them over the Internet or elsewhere.

In February of this year, the FCC opened a new rulemaking proceeding on pretexting, requested by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The proceeding asked the public to comment on five security measures proposed by EPIC to protect customer phone data: passwords set by customers, better tracking of customer records, encryption of records, limits to how long companies can keep customer data, and letting customers know if the security of their records has been compromised.

Dozens of law enforcement agencies, phone companies, and public advocacy groups have filed comments with the FCC on the matter. The comment period ended in June.

Although Montief did not disclose what Martin will propose, she said that the rulemaking proceeding "tentatively concludes that the Commission should require all telecommunications carriers to certify on a date certain each year that they have established operating procedures adequate to ensure compliance with the Commission’s rules and file these certifications with the Commission."

Questioned by members of the Committee, Montief offered little new information about the agency's perspective on pretexting. Representative Bob Stupak of Michigan asked her if, given the FCC's recent fining of AT&T for inadequately enforcing its pretexting rules, the agency should precondition the merger on "a clear and effective policy by the consumer that protects consumers' privacy."

Montief replied that she was "not involved" with the FCC's review of the proposed merger.

The subcommittee also heard testimony from representatives of six major phone companies, including Cingular, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

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