Collection Agencies

Not that I know of.

they can and have called people at all hours of the day.

Can they relase account specific material to other people other than the account holders over the phone, such as employers or family members?

That, I don't know.

I do not know either, but one of our employees has us tell people he cannot take personal phone calls. it is not our business of what his accounts r, so we do not ask.
He was nice enough to let us know he was having financial difficulities, so we knew how to handle the calls.
Is this a credit card co?

YES, There is!!

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

Communication in connection with debt collection
(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY.
Without the prior consent of the consumer given
directly to the debt collector or the express permission of
a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not
communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection
of any debt—
(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known
or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances
to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the
convenient time for communicating with a consumer
is after 8 o’clock antimeridian and before 9 o’clock
postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location;