Media outlets, stimulated by today’s U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing, Internet Data Brokers and Pretexting: Who Has Access to Your Private Records?, are announcing that law enforcement agencies acquire telephone call logs and telephone subscriber data from information brokers, as if this is news. I mentioned this in a posting last month, when the law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security role in obtaining phone records without a subpoena, was broadly reported. This came to the general public’s awareness because the data brokers who were sent letters by the Commerce committee, demanding that they reveal their customer lists, told the committee that police agencies were one of the largest requesters.

Listen to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce webcast at 2pm (East coast), June 22.

Listen to the NPR report

Read the AP story