April 29, 2024 at 03:41PM
The FCC has fined major U.S. wireless carriers around $200 million for sharing customers’ real-time location data without consent. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon faced fines for unauthorized disclosure of location information. Carriers sold data to third parties without obtaining valid customer consent, failing to safeguard it as required by law.
The FCC has fined the largest U.S. wireless carriers a total of almost $200 million for sharing customers’ real-time location data without consent. The fines, issued against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, include $12 million for Sprint and $80 million for T-Mobile (following their merger), more than $57 million for AT&T, and almost $47 million for Verizon. The investigation revealed that the carriers sold their customers’ data to “aggregators” and did not take reasonable measures to protect it from unauthorized access, violating section 222 of the Communications Act. FCC’s Enforcement Bureau emphasized the importance of safeguarding customer data, seeking customer consent, and protecting against potential risks posed by unauthorized access to this information.