In the Third Computer Inquiry, many commenters argued that the BOCs had an unfair marketing advantage for enhanced services because the BOCs had access to the customer proprietary network information (CPNI) for subscribers of the carrier's basic network services. Other parties argued that the BOCs could use their databases to generate aggregate information on usage levels and traffic patterns for network services and that this information would be of substantial value in the technical and economic design of enhanced services.
The BOC ONA Amendment Order required that a password/ID system be used to restrict CPNI access for certain databases routinely accessed by enhanced services marketing personnel. This order did not require that the BOCs implement password/ID systems for auxiliary databases that contained fragmented CPNI or are not routinely accessed by enhanced services marketing personnel[pages 58, 63]ammendorder.
Although the password/ID systems provide a certain degree of confidentiality, the initial purpose of the password/ID systems was not to provide security in the traditional sense, but to prevent a marketing advantage.