April 30, 2024 at 11:22AM
The Federal Communications Commission fined AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon a total of nearly $200 million for illegally sharing customers’ location data without consent, following an investigation that began in 2019. The carriers face penalties for failing to protect sensitive real-time location information and violating federal laws. Carriers have the opportunity to appeal.
Key takeaways from the meeting notes:
1. The Federal Communications Commission imposed fines totaling nearly $200 million against wireless carriers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon for illegally sharing customers’ location data without their consent.
2. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel emphasized that the carriers failed to protect sensitive real-time location information and that the carriers are required to take reasonable measures to protect consumer data as per federal law.
3. Carriers were found selling customers’ location data to third-party data aggregators, leading to the fines proposed in 2020. However, carriers had the opportunity to argue against the claims before the fines were imposed.
4. AT&T commented that the FCC order lacks legal and factual merit and plans to appeal after conducting a legal review, highlighting that it unfairly holds them responsible for another company’s violation of contractual requirements.
5. Among the fines, T-Mobile faces the largest at $80 million, followed by Verizon with a $47 million penalty, AT&T with a $57 million fee, and Sprint, which merged with T-Mobile, receiving a $12 million charge.