FCC to Act Against 1 or More Carriers for Selling Location Data
Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC Enforcement Bureau completed an investigation of whether carriers violated federal law by disclosing consumers’ real-time location data (see 2001310041). One or more enforcement actions will be announced in coming days. Pai announced the probe's conclusion Friday in a letter responding to a November query from House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and other committee Democrats (see 1911080051). The agency declined other comment.
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FCC and other officials said they haven’t been told details on which carrier or carriers are targeted. The four national carriers told Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in June they were no longer selling location information from customers, after she asked about their practices (see 1905160047). Sprint acknowledged then it was “using one location aggregator to provide [location-based service] to two customers with a public interest -- a provider of roadside assistance for Sprint customers, and a provider that facilitates compliance with state requirements for a lottery.” Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint didn’t comment Friday.
“These pay-to-track schemes violated consumers’ privacy rights and endangered to their safety,” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks tweeted: “I’m glad we may finally act on these egregious allegations. My question is: what took so long?”
Rosenworcel questioned Friday why the FCC didn’t do more earlier. “It’s chilling to consider what a black market could do with this data,” she said: “It puts the safety and privacy of every American with a wireless phone at risk. Today this agency finally announced that this was a violation of the law.” House Commerce Democrats repeatedly criticized the FCC for the pace of its investigation. Pai told them in December the Enforcement Bureau investigation was wrapping up.
“Following our longstanding calls to take action, the FCC finally informed” House Commerce Friday about the results of its probe, Pallone said. “This is certainly a step in the right direction, but I’ll be watching to make sure the FCC doesn’t just let these lawbreakers off the hook with a slap on the wrist.” House Commerce Republicans and both parties on the Senate Commerce Committee didn’t comment.
"We're glad to hear there has been some progress, at long last, whether based on the informal complaint” filed in June by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Free Press against the nation’s four largest wireless carriers for selling customers’ data to aggregators in June (see 1906140058). “Like Commissioners Rosenworcel and Starks, and the Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman and members who've been asking about this for the better part of a year, we have to wonder what took so long," emailed Matt Wood, Free Press general counsel: "But in any case, we'll reserve final judgment until we can see what the FCC has found and what remedies it proposes."
“Wireless companies are committed to protecting the privacy of consumers and share location data only with customer consent," emailed a CTIA spokesperson. "Upon hearing allegations of misuse of the data, carriers quickly investigated, suspended access to the data and subsequently terminated those programs.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation “has been every concerned about this issue,” Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey told us. “It really sort of became clear that this abuse was occurring in 2018," he said. "We have been calling on the FCC to enforce the privacy protections.” EFF is pleased with the announcement that “this activity is illegal under federal law,” he said: “The disclosure of peoples’ real-time location data is one of the biggest privacy scandals in the last several years.”