FCC Fines AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Almost $200 Million for Illegally Sharing Customer Location Data

[MacRumors]

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced [PDF] that it has fined AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint/T-Mobile $196 million collectively for illegally selling access to customer location information without consent.

Sprint and T-Mobile (now merged into T-Mobile) have been fined $12 million and $80 million, respectively. Verizon has been fined almost $47 million, and AT&T has been fined more than $57 million.

The FCC first began investigating the four major U.S. carriers in 2019 after they were found selling real-time location information from customer devices to third-party data aggregators, which led to that location data being sold a second time to private investigators, bounty hunters, law enforcement agencies, credit card companies, and more.

Following the investigation, the FCC confirmed that wireless carriers had violated federal law by sharing consumer location data. Fines were proposed back in 2020, but carriers were given an opportunity to provide evidence and legal arguments against the decision before the fines were formally imposed.

The fines vary based on the length of time that each carrier sold access to customer location information without safeguards, and the number of entities that were provided access. The FCC determined that carriers were obligated to protect the personal information of their customers, which they did not do.

"Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us. These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers' real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "As we resolve these cases - which were first proposed by the last Administration - the Commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and making sure they fulfill their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data."

The four carriers had different practices, but each carrier relied on contract-based assurances that the data aggregators purchasing the real-time location information would get consent from customers before accessing their location, which did not happen. Even after learning that data was being misused in this way, the FCC says the carriers "continued to sell access to location information without taking reasonable measures to protect it from unauthorized access."

Article Link: FCC Fines AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Almost $200 Million for Illegally Sharing Customer Location Data

 

[grantishere]

And yet Google hasn't been fined a dime for this

 

[yeah]

That’s it?

 

[philosoraptor1]

Should have been double whatever they made selling the data.

 

[t0rqx]

Instead of just a fine, how about insight what they earned and redeem.

 

[jz0309]

should have been 10 times as much, at least ...

 

[TheLisnakFactor]

So my data was sold and the government gets paid and I get nothing….

 

[zarmanto]

Why does none of this surprise me?

 

[rukia]

The small fine is probably far less than what the telecoms make on selling the data. It will likely have the same deterrence as the "speeding ticket" fines the SEC imposes on Wall St. for bad behavior leading to billions in profits.

 

[antiprotest]

Governments are always looking to fine companies for hurting customers. But then the money goes to these agencies instead of back to us, the people they're so adamant to protect. So these companies get money from us. The agencies get money from these companies. In other words everybody is getting money from us and trying to make us think they're doing us a favor.

 

[Timpetus]

Can we make the fine go to their customers in proportion to the amount made off our data?

 

[FattiesGoneWild]

That is like $2 bucks for these cats. Means nothing.

 

[Syk]

How about making them pay us users for what they sold.
Also I wish these companies had to start paying out people who get their information stolen instead of the crappy we'll pay to have your credit monitored...

 

[coolfactor]

So my data was sold and the government gets paid and I get nothing….

Ohhh, don't say that! You get a price increase on your service to help finance this fine payment!

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

As long as my employer doesn’t see my location during work hours I am fine

 

[ifxf]

And they want to ban TikTok for theoretical sharing.

 

[picpicmac]

And yet Google hasn't been fined a dime for this

The FCC does not regulate Google.

 

[Blue Nova]

ATT has 71 million customers, that 57 million will be less than a dollar for me..

 

[antiprotest]

How about making them pay us users for what they sold.
Also I wish these companies had to start paying out people who get their information stolen instead of the crappy we'll pay to have your credit monitored...

Right, they're like, sorry we lost your data, here's an opportunity to give even more of your data to this other company. You're welcome.

 

[wigby]

Governments are always looking to fine companies for hurting customers. But then the money goes to these agencies instead of back to us, the people they're so adamant to protect. So these companies get money from us. The agencies get money from these companies. In other words everybody is getting money from us and trying to make us think they're doing us a favor.

It's a little like a class action lawsuit. How is $4.52 going to make any difference to a consumer that has had their data sold? Better to combine all the fine dollars to create new legislation or an agency to combat fraud and privacy violations. In this case, they'll probably just expand their staff a little and everyone gets a new computer. But a little more transparency in the money's final destination would be a good start.

 

[antiprotest]

ATT has 71 million customers, that 57 million will be less than a dollar for me..

Yeah you're not getting anything. Governments line their own pockets with most fines like this. I'm sure part of them wish companies would break these laws. Also, even when they know the companies are breaking the rules so that they could put a stop to it right away to protect the people, they instead wait for years in many cases before they enforce the rules so they'd get a bigger fine.

 

[Crow_Servo]

So my data was sold and the government gets paid and I get nothing….

Exactly. This is the future. Regular folk get left in the dust, while the government grifts the grifters.

 

[jb310]

This isn't directly related, but the government really should fine these companies for data leaks too, I mean how many times has T-Mobile had data breaches in the past half-decade or so? 😰

(maybe these companies would take cybersecurity and safeguarding their customers' data a little more seriously if they actually got fined for gross incompetence?)

 

[B4U]

Meanwhile, you and I will never actually get a penny in our pockets directly out of this.

 

[JosephAW]

Now I know why I get all those political texts, always mark as spam