What just happened? The country’s top wireless carriers just got slapped with massive fines totaling close to $200 million for selling their customers’ private location info behind their backs. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint were all caught monetizing data on where their users go without proper consent.
The Federal Communications Commission announced the penalties this week after investigations found the four carriers had been feeding customer location data to shady data brokers and aggregators. Those firms then resold that sensitive info to pretty much any third party willing to pay up, no questions asked about how it would be used.
The FCC determined that by offloading the responsibility to obtain consent to these data brokers, the carriers ensured that valid customer approval was rarely if ever actually obtained before location data changed hands. Even after being warned their practices violated customer privacy, the carriers kept on selling location data with zero safeguards.
“Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us,” stated FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them.”
Meanwhile, Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau, said, “The protection and use of sensitive personal data such as location information is sacrosanct. When placed in the wrong hands or used for nefarious purposes, it puts all of us at risk.”
“Foreign adversaries and cybercriminals have prioritized getting their hands on this information, and that is why ensuring service providers have reasonable protections in place to safeguard customer location data and valid consent for its use is of the highest priority for the Enforcement Bureau,” he added.
T-Mobile faces the heftiest penalty of $80 million, while former subsidiary Sprint owes $12 million. AT&T incurred a $57 million fine, and Verizon was hit for $47 million. All of these carriers have said they’ll appeal the rulings.
The issue first came to light in 2019 when tech outlets began reporting on the unconsented sale of real-time location data by carriers. Plans for FCC fines emerged the following year but were delayed by partisan gridlock as the commission awaited a new commissioner.
Disturbingly, this privacy scandal is merely the latest in a long line of abuses around location tracking. Data brokers have cultivated a multibillion-dollar industry analyzing and reselling location datasets to reveal insights on human behavior and market trends.
While it’s great to see the FCC finally taking action over this massive breach of trust between customers and carriers, the $200 million is literal pocket change for these telecom giants, which rake in billions in revenue every year.