Trahan Highlights Hill Pressure on FCC to Finish Wireless Location Tracking Probe
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., touted her bid to use a rider in the FCC’s FY 2020 budget to pressure it to complete an investigation into wireless carriers' location tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed…
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by bounty hunters (see 1805240073), during a podcast released Monday with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The House passed the FY 2020 budget bill in June including FCC appropriations (HR-3351) with Trahan’s amendment, which proposes reallocating $1 in FCC funding to “highlight the importance of completing its investigation” (see 1906260081). “It's been over a year” since Congress requested the review “so that we could better assess” the “policy prescriptions to safeguard American consumers,” Trahan said. “It was mind-blowing … to hear that, for just for a few dollars” bad actors “could buy this information and … enable them to prey on victims.” Congress “will be in a position, once we have the data, to remedy this situation,” she said. “Passing this was a great first step” in “getting the results” of the probe so “we can then legislate and make sure that consumers' personal security isn't” at risk. House Communications Subcommittee Democrats criticized FCC Chairman Ajit Pai over the length of the investigation during a May hearing (see 1905150061). House Communications Democrats pressed Pai in November to provide an update (see 1911080051). The agency didn’t comment.