The FCC has just issued a fine of nearly $200 million to AT&T and other large US carriers for illegally sharing customer location data. In a report filed on April 29, the FCC alleges that the US’ largest wireless carriers shared the location data of its customers without their knowledge or consent. The FCC began its investigation into carriers over location data sharing back in 2019, and in 2020 it was reported that it might propose a $200 million fine to carriers over the matter.
In its report, the FCC stresses the importance of this data and that carriers failed to protect customers by sharing it. “Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us. These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers’ real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
The $200 million fine is spread out among the largest carriers in the US. This includes T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Sprint merged with T-Mobile around the time the investigation began.
T-Mobile and AT&T have the largest FCC fine
Out of the $200 million total, T-Mobile and AT&T have the largest fines. T-Mobile is being fined $80 million while AT&T is being fined more than $57 million. Sprint, meanwhile, is being fined $12 million. Verizon faces a fine of almost $47 million. It’s unclear if any of the carriers will actually end up having to pay these fines. Both AT&T and Verizon have said they will appeal the decision. As The Verge reports, a Verizon spokesperson named Richard Young says the carrier plans to appeal.
AT&T also stated it “expects to appeal the order after conducting a legal review.” T-Mobile hasn’t made any sort of statement regarding the matter at this time.
Carriers attempted to “offload obligations” to obtain consent to downstream recipients
The FCC’s initial upset over the location data sharing would be understandable if it stopped there. However, according to the report, carriers didn’t just sell location-sharing data and then failed to fix the issues. The FCC also alleges that carriers attempted to “offload the obligation” of gaining customer consent to “downstream recipients.” This refers to the third-party location-based service providers that bought the information from aggregators.
The FCC says that in many instances, consent was never obtained. Carriers also allegedly continued to sell this information without taking precautions to protect their customers, despite being made aware of the problems. For Verizon’s part, it says the issue lies mainly with an old program that it shut down “more than half a decade ago.”