The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined the largest U.S. wireless carriers nearly $200 million for sharing their customers' location data in real time and without their consent.
The FCC orders finalize Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL) issued against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon four years ago.
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The fines were imposed yesterday and include:
- $12 million for Sprint
- $80 million for T-Mobile (the two carriers merged since the investigation began)
- more than $57 million for AT&T
- nearly $47 million for Verizon
The FCC had launched an investigation after reports that US carriers disclosed customer location information to a Missouri sheriff through Securus’ “location tracking service.” According to the reports, users had not given their consent or had legal authority to do so.
The investigation revealed that the providers were aware of the unauthorized access, but continued to operate their programs without ensuring that location-based service providers, with access to customers' location information, obtained their consent.
During the investigation (before the fine was imposed), the FCC found that all four mobile carriers location data customers ’ real-time They, in turn, resold that information to dozens of third-party service . This means that all of these providers knew who the customers were and where they were, violating their privacy.
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The four carriers, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, took over 275 days to end their location-based service plans, while Sprint took 386 days.
Under Section 222 of the Communications Decency Act, U.S. wireless carriers must take steps to protect customer data , including location information.
It is also necessary to ensure that they have the client's consent before using, disclosing or providing access to this information.
“Verizon is deeply committed to protecting customer privacy. When a malicious user gained unauthorized access to information about a very small number of customers, we quickly prosecuted the fraudster, terminated the program, and worked to ensure this never happens again,”a spokesperson told BleepingComputer, regarding the FCC fine. “Unfortunately, the FCC’s order is wrong on both the facts and the law, and we intend to appeal this decision.”
AT&T is also said to be planning to appeal the order and fine, saying it “lacks legal and factual merit.”
Fine to protect providers' customers
The FCC's fine is an important step toward protecting consumer privacy. Consumers have the right to know how and where their personal data , and wireless companies must respect that right.
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The FCC's distribution of fines to the largest U.S. wireless carriers is a message to all companies that rules protection will not go unpunished. This could lead to increased transparency and respect for customer privacy in the future.
Finally, this move could increase consumer confidence in wireless services. Consumers can feel safer knowing that there are organizations, like the FCC, that oversee these companies and impose fines when data protection rules are violated.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
