Federal regulators have slapped several major mobile phone companies with nearly $200 million in fines for illegally sharing customers’ location information without their consent.
The Federal Communications Commission on Monday announced fines against Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, the latter two of which have merged since the investigation began. The investigation found that four carriers sold access to their customers’ location data to aggregators, who in turn sold that data to third-party location service providers.
“Our nation’s telecommunications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about our company, and these carriers have failed to protect the information entrusted to them,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. ” he said.
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The investigation began after it was disclosed that the nation’s largest wireless carrier was sharing customer location information without the customer’s knowledge or any other authorization.
The FCC found that by selling access to this information to aggregators, carriers sought to “burden downstream recipients of location information with the obligation to obtain customer consent.” This often means that valid consent from the customer was not obtained.
According to the FCC, after being notified that their security measures were ineffective, carriers continued to access customers’ location information without taking steps to protect it from unauthorized access by third parties. He continued to sell it.
According to the FCC, under federal law, carriers are required to protect location information along with other customers’ sensitive information unless they have “explicit consent” to share it.
FCC Enforcement Director Royan A. Egal, who led the investigation, said foreign adversaries and cybercriminals have begun to prioritize obtaining sensitive personal data of Americans, including location information.
“The protection and use of sensitive personal data, such as location information, is sacrosanct,” Egal said in a statement. “If it falls into the wrong hands or is used for nefarious purposes, we are all at risk.”
What are the fines imposed on all four carriers?
The agency first proposed fines in 2020 after an investigation.
The fines against Verizon and T-Mobile were ultimately reduced after the commission considered additional evidence, according to a forfeiture order released by the FCC.
The fines imposed on each carrier are as follows:
Wireless carrier plans to appeal penalty charges
In separate statements Monday to USA TODAY, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T all said they would appeal the ruling, indicating the fines are related to programs the companies shut down more than five years ago. .
“Verizon is deeply committed to protecting customer privacy,” Verizon spokesman Rich Young said in a statement. He said it pertains to a now-defunct program that requires consent.
“When a malicious actor gains unauthorized access to information about a small number of our customers, we act quickly and proactively to shut down the fraudster, shut down the program, and ensure that this kind of thing never happens again,” Young said in a statement. I tried to prevent it from happening again.” . “Unfortunately, the FCC’s order is wrong both in fact and in law.”
“The FCC order has no legal or factual merit,” an AT&T spokesperson told USA TODAY.
According to AT&T’s statement, it “unreasonably holds us responsible for another company’s violation of the contractual requirements for consent, disregards the immediate steps we took to address that company’s failures, and endangers human life.” “It unfairly punishes us for supporting a location-based service that could save lives.”
T-Mobile said in a statement: “We take our responsibility to keep our customer data secure very seriously and have always supported the FCC’s efforts to protect consumers, but this decision is wrong and we believe that we will be fined. is excessive.”
Eric Lagatta covers the latest and trending news for USA TODAY. Please contact elagatta@gannett.com.
