Measure outlaws sale of wireless phone data

AUGUSTA – It’s now illegal in Maine to sell personal cell phone records.

Gov. John Baldacci has signed into law a bill making it a crime and a civil violation to sell wireless phone records. Records are lifted by people posing as customers, hacking into wireless-company records, using “spyware” to get them or buying the records from unscrupulous employees.

Landline records are already protected under federal law.

The new privacy-protection law applying to cell records in Maine took effect immediately upon Baldacci’s signature Thursday. Most laws take effect 90 days after the legislative session ends.