(a) No telephone or telegraph corporation shall make available to any other person or corporation, without first obtaining the residential subscriber’s consent, in writing, any of the following information:
(1) The subscriber’s personal calling patterns, including any listing of the telephone or other access numbers called by the subscriber, but excluding the identification to the person called of the person calling and the telephone number from which the call was placed, subject to the restrictions in Section 2893, and also excluding billing information concerning the person calling which federal law or regulation requires a telephone corporation to provide to the person called.
(2) The residential subscriber’s credit or other personal financial information, except when the corporation is ordered by the commission to provide this information to any electrical, gas, heat, telephone, telegraph, or water corporation, or centralized credit check system, for the purpose of determining the creditworthiness of new utility subscribers.
(3) The services which the residential subscriber purchases from the corporation or from independent suppliers of information services who use the corporation’s telephone or telegraph line to provide service to the residential subscriber.
(4) Demographic information about individual residential subscribers, or aggregate information from which individual identities and characteristics have not been removed.
(b) Any residential subscriber who gives his or her written consent for the release of one or more of the categories of personal information specified in subdivision (a) shall be informed by the telephone or telegraph corporation regarding the identity of each person or corporation to whom the information has been released, upon written request. The corporation shall notify every residential subscriber of the provisions of this subdivision whenever consent is requested pursuant to this subdivision.
(c) Any residential subscriber who has, pursuant to subdivision (b), given written consent for the release of one or more of the categories of personal information specified in subdivision (a) may rescind this consent upon submission of a written notice to the telephone or telegraph corporation. The corporation shall cease to make available any personal information about the subscriber, within 30 days following receipt of notice given pursuant to this subdivision.
(d) This section does not apply to any of the following:
(1) Information provided by residential subscribers for inclusion in the corporation’s directory of subscribers.
(2) Information customarily provided by the corporation through directory assistance services.
(3) Postal ZIP Code information.
(4) Information provided under supervision of the commission to a collection agency by the telephone corporation exclusively for the collection of unpaid debts.
(5) Information provided to an emergency service agency responding to a 911 telephone call or any other call communicating an imminent threat to life or property.
(6) Information provided to a law enforcement agency in response to lawful process.
(7) Information which is required by the commission pursuant to its jurisdiction and control over telephone and telegraph corporations.
(8) Information transmitted between telephone or telegraph corporations pursuant to the furnishing of telephone service between or within service areas.
(9) Information required to be provided by the corporation pursuant to rules and orders of the commission or the Federal Communications Commission regarding the provision over telephone lines by parties other than the telephone and telegraph corporations of telephone or information services.
(10) The name and address of the lifeline customers of a telephone corporation provided by that telephone corporation to a public utility for the sole purpose of low-income ratepayer assistance outreach efforts. The telephone corporation receiving the information request pursuant to this paragraph may charge the requesting utility for the cost of the search and release of the requested information.
(11) Information provided in response to a request pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 530.8 of the Penal Code.
(e) Every violation is a grounds for a civil suit by the aggrieved residential subscriber against the telephone or telegraph corporation and its employees responsible for the violation.
(f) For purposes of this section, “access number” means a telex, teletex, facsimile, computer modem, or any other code which is used by a residential subscriber of a telephone or telegraph corporation to direct a communication to another subscriber of the same or another telephone or telegraph corporation.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 612, Sec. 59. (SB 697) Effective January 1, 2016.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018