Recently, phone companies have been required by the Federal government to release greater numbers of phone records in sweeping requests on their data.
While Federal courts agree these requests are lawful, we believe that it is a conflict of interest for phone companies to profit off legal searches of their customer records.
Verizon, for instance, charges $40 per record for individual subpoena requests. Even if negotiated down, this fee represents millions that a company could make just for complying with the law. This is a misuse of taxpayer funds.
We ask that the FCC set the maximum fee that phone companies can charge to no more than $.50 per single subpoena request and $.01 per record for mass a subpoena requests. This will cover their costs without allowing a profit.