The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States has announced fines for four major mobile phone carriers: Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. These fines were imposed for unauthorized real-time location data transfers to external companies and insufficient privacy safeguards.
All four companies were found to be transmitting location data to aggregators, who then sold the information to marketing companies without clear user consent. While these companies claim not to disclose individual phone identities, the sheer volume of data could potentially compromise user privacy.
Securus, a company that purchased location data, utilized it to track individuals with alarming accuracy. Despite claiming to only serve law enforcement agencies, reports surfaced of misuse by a sheriff to track non-criminal individuals at least 11 times.
FCC initiated legal proceedings in 2020, issuing Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL) to the companies. Following disputes, AT&T and Sprint faced fines of $57 million and $12 million, respectively, while T-Mobile and Verizon were fined $80 million and $47 million, with slight reductions.
AT&T disputed the fines, stating they unfairly penalized the entire company for individual violations, while Verizon argued that the problematic issues were minimal and had been addressed and discontinued. Both companies are preparing appeals for the next steps.
TLDR: FCC fined major mobile carriers for unauthorized location data transfers and insufficient privacy safeguards, sparking disputes and appeals.
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