Another entry in our ongoing series about how unlikely it is for the U.S. legal profession to assume a convincing pose as guardians of everyone’s privacy:
Attorneys are among the top customers of the controversial Web sites [which sell access to cellphone records without customers’ consent], according to private investigators, privacy advocates and Web site operators who sell the phone records.
“Let’s put it this way, the legal profession is keeping it alive,” said Rob Douglas, a former private eye turned security consultant who has helped the Federal Trade Commission investigate and prosecute online operators that sell phone records.
“I’ve investigated them with the federal government and in private lawsuits … and in every single case, the overwhelming majority of users of these companies are attorneys,” Douglas said.
These attorneys include divorce lawyers, who want to know who feuding spouses are talking to; business lawyers, who want to know who their clients’ competitors are talking to; and employment lawyers, who want to know if employees are selling any trade secrets.
(Tresa Baldas, “Will Lawyers Get Hung Up in Quest for Cell Phone Records?”, National Law Journal, Feb. 10). A few earlier entries: Jul. 22, 2003; Apr. 14 and Jun. 15, 2004; Feb. 7 and Feb. 9, 2006.
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