Rep. Bono Mack asks Apple, Google and others for phone hacking info

Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) has talked to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Apple, Google and other companies for more information on how they safeguard their customers against phone hacking.

The phone hacking scandal in the UK has raised privacy and security concerns on this side of the Atlantic, after journalists at News Corp.’s now-defunct paper News of the World admitted that they had asked private investigators to intercept the phone messages of celebrities and ordinary citizens. Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Rep Bono Mack, said that this is, at the very least, an instructive exercise to see whether Americans are vulnerable to these sorts of hacks. “This is to try and get a handle on the situation and get assurances that this is a uniquely UK problem,” he said. These conversations are part of a larger effort by Rep Bono Mack -- who chairs that House Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and manufacturing -- to take a look at privacy and data security laws.