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U.S. Carriers Facing $200M in Fines for Selling Customer Location Data

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Apr 12, 2001
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As expected, the United States Federal Communications Commission today proposed fines against the four major wireless carriers in the United States for improperly sharing and selling real-time customer location information without taking "reasonable measures" to protect against unauthorized access to the data.

uscarriersfcc.jpg

In a statement [PDF] released today, the FCC says that T-Mobile should pay the most, while Sprint should pay the least. T-Mobile faces a proposed fine of more than $91 million, while the FCC wants AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint to pay over $51 million, $48 million, and $12 million in fines, respectively.

The fines vary based on the length of time that each carrier sold access to its customer location information without safeguards and the number of entities to which each carrier sold access.

Along with the proposed fines, the statement from the FCC admonishes the four carriers for disclosing customer location data without authorization to third-party entities.
"American consumers take their wireless phones with them wherever they go. And information about a wireless customer's location is highly personal and sensitive. The FCC has long had clear rules on the books requiring all phone companies to protect their customers' personal information. And since 2007, these companies have been on notice that they must take reasonable precautions to safeguard this data and that the FCC will take strong enforcement action if they don't. Today, we do just that," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "This FCC will not tolerate phone companies putting Americans' privacy at risk."
Click to expand...
All four of the major U.S. carriers sold customer geolocation information to data aggregators like LocationSmart and Zumigo, with those companies then reselling the data to third-party location-based service providers. The data was ultimately provided to law enforcement officials, bounty hunters, bail bondsman, and more.

The FCC says that though exact practices varied, each carrier relied heavily on contract-based assurances that the location-based services providers they worked with would get consent from the customer before accessing the customer's location information, which did not happen.

Carriers had "several commonsense options to impose reasonable safeguards," but ultimately "failed to take the reasonable steps needed to protect customers from unreasonable risk of unauthorized disclosure."

The fines proposed by the FCC today are not final and each carrier will be provided with an opportunity to respond and provide evidence and legal arguments before final fines are imposed.

Article Link: U.S. Carriers Facing $200M in Fines for Selling Customer Location Data
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/28/fcc-us-carriers-customer-location-data-fines/
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,009
8,148
Los Angeles
It's ironic that a government agency is fining carriers for providing our personal information to other government agencies, while still other government agencies are demanding that device manufacturers hand over the keys to your personal information. Too bad we can't sic the FCC on those agencies too.
 
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JosephAW

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
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Keep in mind that your location is tracked even if you have Location Services off or even if no carrier is enabled. It's still pinging the towers for no service. That's why Here maps works even with phones that don't have a carrier.
 
C

cbusbuck

Suspended
Feb 6, 2020
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Not even a slap on the wrist. Jail time would be great, but that's probably too much of an ask. How about forced firing of high-level executives and board members WITHOUT giving them a golden parachute? One can only dream.
 
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Substance90

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2011
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If it was the EU imposing the fines everyone here would be ranting about communism and government overreach.
 
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hagar

macrumors 68020
Jan 19, 2008
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So many Americans always going on about how they want a small government and no limitations for the free market. But now that they see the consequences, they don’t understand why the fine is so low. Make up your mind!
Maybe strong laws to protect workers, the environment and consumers are not a bad thing after all.
 
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lJoSquaredl

lJoSquaredl

macrumors 6502a
Mar 26, 2012
522
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Or at least if they're gonna sell my data give me $1000 a month for it:)
 
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M

Morgenrot

macrumors newbie
Feb 29, 2020
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Okay, so where are those 200M going to come from? The customers, of course! I don’t understand the point of these fines, instead they should be forced to pay back their customers or lower their bills.
 
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Mr Lizard

Mr Lizard

macrumors regular
Jan 26, 2006
107
114
London, UK
Barely a drop of p*** in the ocean. Add a zero and then we’re talking seriously. Fines like this should set a company back by a couple of years of growth.
 
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