WASHINGTON-The House last week passed legislation to extend wireless privacy protection to personal communications services and to beef up enforcement of the law.
House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.), sponsor of the bill, said the measure brings privacy to the wireless digital Age.
“We in government ought to do everything we can to protect that expectation of privacy. That is what this bill is all about,” said Tauzin.
A companion bill in the Senate has yet to be introduced.
“The wireless industry has always had a policy zero tolerance when it comes to electronic peeping Toms,” said Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association. “Wireless consumers deserve the peace of mind that their conversations and messages are protected from scanning, eavesdropping or interception.”
Tim Ayers, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said the trade group welcomes the House vote.
Wireless privacy hit close to home in Congress in 1996 when a Florida couple with Democratic ties tape recorded from their radio scanner a conference call of House Republican leaders on how House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) would navigate his way through ethics troubles.
“Little did I know that my words and my expressions were being recorded and would end up as part of a public-relations campaign to try to destroy the speaker,” said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House.
Because Boehner was using his cellular phone during the conversation with Gingrich and House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), the Florida couple picked up the entire conversation even though the other participants in the call used wireline phones.
Boehner has threatened to sue Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who is suspected of leaking a transcript of the captured Republican strategy session to The New York Times and others.
The Tauzin bill, which the House passed 414-to-1, extends the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement powers and allows for increased fines for violations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
