FCC Fines Wireless Carriers for Sharing Customer-Location Data — Update
By Ben Glickman
Federal regulators fined wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint nearly $200 million for sharing customer-location data without consent.
The Federal Communications Commission on Monday said that an investigation found the four carriers sold access to customers' location data to aggregators, who resold the data to third parties.
The FCC said that Verizon was fined $46.9 million, AT&T was fined $57.3 million, T-Mobile was fined $80.1 million and Sprint was fined $12.2 million. Sprint and T-Mobile merged in 2020.
The agency first proposed the fines in 2020 following an investigation. The FCC said at the time that the carriers had relied on assurances that location-based-services providers would obtain consent from customers before using their information.
The FCC failed to ultimately issue the orders several years ago due to partisan deadlock among the regulator's four commissioners at the time. The one vacant commissioner seat has since been filled by the Biden administration.
Regulators began probing the carriers following public reports of customers' real-time locations being shared with third-party companies.
The FCC also alleged that the carriers continued to operate their programs without establishing protections to ensure the third parties obtained consent from customers, even after being made aware of the unauthorized access to data.
Carriers have previously said the shared data was used for critical services, include roadside assistance and emergency response. AT&T and T-Mobile said Monday that they would challenge the respective orders.
AT&T said in a statement argued the order lacks "legal and factual merit." A spokesperson said the order was unfairly holding the company responsible for another company's violations and ignored AT&T's steps to address the issue.
T-Mobile said data sharing with location-based services through third-party aggregators was discontinued more than five years ago. The carrier said it takes seriously its responsibility to protect customer data, but the decision by the FCC is wrong and its fine is excessive.
A representative for Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carriers must keep customer data private unless they have obtained explicit consent from users, the FCC said.
The commission slightly reduced its proposed penalties for Verizon and T-Mobile after reviewing additional evidence, according to the forfeiture orders for each company.
Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 29, 2024 15:33 ET (19:33 GMT)
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