FCC Proposes Rules To Aid Investigation Of Threatening Calls

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to help unmask anonymous callers who threaten and harass schools, religious institutions, and other victims.

This effort follows the FCC’s temporary waiver earlier this year of caller ID privacy rules in order to help law enforcement address threatening phone calls received by Jewish Community Centers. The FCC is seeking to help law enforcement and community institutions get from telephone providers quick access to the information they need to identify and thwart threatening callers. The FCC seeks to streamline this process so that, going forward, institutions facing harassing or threatening calls can work with law enforcement to access caller ID info of the anonymous callers more quickly than the current, case-by-case waiver process. The proposal would amend the FCC’s rules to ensure that law enforcement and threatened parties can quickly identify threatening callers without the regulatory delay of applying for and being granted a waiver of the rules. The proposal lays out a path that protects consumer privacy by ensuring that caller information only be disclosed for truly threatening calls and that only law enforcement personnel and others responsible for the safety and security of the threatened party have access to otherwise-protected caller ID information.