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The Federal Communications Commission has fined four U.S. wireless carriers nearly $200 million for illegally sharing access to customer location data.
AT&T was fined more than $57 million, and Verizon was fined about $47 million. T-Mobile and Sprint, which have merged since the investigation began, were fined a combined $92 million. The FCC announced this on Monday.
“Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “What we’re talking about is some of the most sensitive data our customers own: their real-time location, which reveals where they go and who they are. .”
The fine was first proposed in February 2020. The FCC announced Monday that these phone companies sold their customers’ location data to “aggregators,” who then resold access to that data to companies that provide location-based services.
Companies that use location-based services include prison phone services, ride-hailing apps, and phone games. Such data can also be used by companies to send targeted advertisements based on location.
The FCC said that even though the phone companies were aware of the links, dozens of location services were accessing the phone companies’ customer data without consumer consent.
The practice of sharing data in this way is 2018 Congressional Investigation.
In response to the FCC’s fine, all three phone companies said they planned to appeal the decision.
“We take our responsibility to ensure the safety of our customer data very seriously and have always supported the FCC’s efforts to protect consumers,” T-Mobile said in a statement to Business Insider. “However, this decision is wrong and the fine is outrageous. We intend to appeal.”
“The FCC order has no legal or factual merit,” AT&T said in a statement to BI. “It unfairly holds us responsible for another company’s breach of the contractual requirements to obtain consent, and ignores the immediate steps we took to address that company’s failure.”
Verizon did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment sent outside normal business hours. company told CNN One bad actor who accessed customer data has been shut down, and Verizon says it plans to appeal the FCC’s decision.
Sen. Ron Wyden, who led the 2018 congressional investigation, said the fines proposed in 2020 were “ridiculously inadequate.” Now, with the fines against T-Mobile and Verizon reduced starting in 2020, he said: Thursday’s statement He said he praised the FCC for “holding these companies accountable.”