Sprint latest to sue to protect customer data

Sprint Nextel on Friday followed some of its competitors in filing a lawsuit against companies that sell mobile phone call details.

Sprint Nextel’s suit charges 1st Source Information Specialists with using illegal and deceptive practices to obtain and sell call records of Sprint Nextel cellphone users.

Sprint Nextel hopes the lawsuit will help in figuring out how the company obtains the customer data, said Jennifer Walsh, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel. One theory is that the company calls Sprint Nextel and poses as customers in order to obtain call details.

While Walsh said that Sprint Nextel is always looking for the most effective ways to protect its customers’ privacy, she stopped short of saying that Sprint Nextel would implement new policies in order to protect against this type of fraud in the future. “The concern in this situation is these companies are committing fraudulent activity,” she said. She encouraged customers to use Sprint Nextel’s pass code system so that they can protect their own information and privacy.

Sprint Nextel follows Verizon Wireless, which on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against several companies and their principals including 1st Source Information Specialists and Data Find Solutions. Verizon has already secured injunctions against other companies in an effort to stop them from fraudulently obtaining Verizon customer data.

Also this week, Cingular Wireless won an injunction that orders eFindOutTheTruth.com not to pose as a Cingular customer or employee for any purpose. Cingular has filed a lawsuit against the company charging it with unlawfully obtaining Cingular customer records. Cingular has also secured a similar restraining order against Data Find Solutions and 1st Source Information Specialists.

Last August, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research center that aims to draw attention to privacy and civil liberties issues, petitioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission asking it to require stronger protection for phone records. Some operators, including Verizon Wireless, opposed the petition, instead encouraging a greater effort to stop the companies that are fraudulently obtaining the information.

Political blog Ameriblog.com in mid-January drew attention to the companies that sell cell-phone records by running a story about the ease with which the author bought U.S. General Wesley Clark’s mobile-phone records.