Wireless carriers receive multi-million dollar fines from the FCC for disclosing user locations without authorization.
The hefty fines resulted from the Federal Communications Commission's accusations in 2020 that numerous telecommunication companies had been illegally sharing users' geolocation histories with third parties for several years, including prisons, as a part of their commercial endeavours.
These sanctions mainly target a technique in which carriers transferred user location data to data resellers, also known as "location aggregators". These aggregators then sold the information to their own third-party clients.
These carriers had vowed to halt this practice after press coverage and a congressional probe exposed the issue in 2018. However, they took significantly longer, with some lasting almost a year, to cease this conduct, according to the FCC announcement this week, concluding a case initiated during the Trump presidency.
"Each carrier endeavoured to transfer their obligations to obtain customer consent to the downstream recipients of location information, many times resulting in no legitimate customer consent obtained," the FCC stated in their release.
The monetary penalties include $57 million for AT&T, $47 million for Verizon, $12 million for Sprint, and a whopping $80 million for T-Mobile. Since the investigation began, Sprint and T-Mobile joined forces in 2020.
In response to the FCC's fines, all the wireless carriers announced they intend to challenge the verdict.
"The FCC order lacks both legal and factual credibility," stated AT&T in a press release. "It unconscionably attributes our responsibility to a different company for breaching our contractual requirements, disregards the prompt actions we took to address that company's shortcomings, and punishes us for supporting vital location-based services like emergency medical alerts and roadside assistance the FCC itself previously lauded. We plan to review the order before deciding on an appeal."
Verizon emphasised their dedication to safeguarding customer privacy.
"In this specific situation, when an unauthorised individual gained access to information relating to a limited amount of customers, we swiftly halted the program, severed ties with the culprit, and took steps to prevent future incidents," said Verizon in their statement. "Unfortunately, the FCC's order is erroneous on both the facts and the law, and we'll appeal this decision."
T-Mobile stated that their location data-sharing program had stopped more than five years ago after ensuring that vital services such as roadside assistance, fraud protection, and emergency response would not be impacted.
"We take our duty to safeguard our customers' data earnestly and have always supported the FCC's efforts to defend consumers," said T-Mobile in their statement. "But this decision is erroneous, and the penalty is exorbitant. We plan to contest it."
In 2018, an investigation led by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden uncovered that cellphone location data had been leaked to Securus, a provider of prison telephone services. This sensitive information could have been exploited to monitor almost every individual in the country. Wyden, at the time, urged the FCC to launch a probe into these companies' conduct.
"No person who signed up for a cell plan believed they were authorising their phone company to sell comprehensive records of their movements to anyone with a credit card," asserted Wyden in his statement on Monday. "I commend the FCC for pursuing this matter and sanctioning these corporations for potentially endangering the lives and privacy of their patrons."
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Source: edition.cnn.com
