The Federal Communications Commission ruled in August that telephone companies can use private information about their customers and former customers for marketing purposes without their permission.
The FCC, voting 4-1, agreed to let telephone companies use the information to win back former customers that had been lost to competitors. They also can use it to market equipment and other services to existing customers.
The data includes the quantity, configuration, type, destination and amount of services that the customer signed up for.
Commissioner Gloria Tristani opposed the move, saying she felt that control over such information properly belongs in the hands of the customer and not the telephone companies.
Allowing telcos to use that information without permission “violates customer expectations” about the privacy of that data, she said.
But the majority, led by chairman William E. Kennard, said that allowing that information to be used without permission – especially for campaigns to win back lost customers – is considered “good for competition” in the industry.
In those instances where phone companies are required to obtain customers’ permission before using or distributing information about them, the FCC ordered the companies to clearly establish the status of the customer approval beforehand.
The FCC did not dictate how telephone companies are to obtain and record customer permissions on information use. It merely said that they were free to set up their own programs in a manner that is “most conducive to its individual size, resources, [corporate] culture and technological capabilities.”
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