FCC fines major wireless carriers $200M for illegally selling customer location data – By David DiMolfetta (Nextgov) / April 29, 2024
The wireless providers said they plan to appeal the fine.
The Federal Communications Commission on Monday said it fined the largest U.S. wireless carriers $200 million on grounds that the companies sold their customers’ location data to third parties without consent while not taking steps to protect that info from security compromises.
The fines hit Sprint and T-Mobile — which merged in 2020 after the agency’s initial investigation began — some $12 million and $80 million, respectively, while AT&T and Verizon were respectively fined over $57 million and nearly $47 million.
The agency’s enforcement arm said the providers sold customer location info to data brokers, who then resold that packaged data to third-party service providers who use location information for profit-making purposes. The carriers circumvented their obligation to protect customer location data and broke rules that barred them from selling off that data without first getting permission from their users, the FCC said.
