AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Receive $200 Million FCC Fine for Sharing User Location Data Without Consent

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a fine totaling $200 million to the country’s four largest wireless carriers after completing an investigation that found the companies illegally shared access to customers’ location data, the agency said Monday. -fair.

T-Mobile received the largest fine of $80 million, along with a $12 million fine for its subsidiary, Sprint, which the company acquired in 2020. AT&T was fined more than $57 million and Verizon was fined almost US$7 million, according to the agency advertisement.

The fines follow the FCC’s initial allegations in 2020 under the Trump administration that wireless carriers were violating laws by failing to protect users’ location data.

Cellphone operators have rejected the accusations and said they intend to contest the fine.

The FCC said the agency’s oversight department’s investigation into the carriers found that each of them sold access to their customers’ location information to “aggregators” who resold access to the information to third-party location-based service providers.

The FCC said carriers “attempted to shift” their obligation to obtain customer consent to third parties, which led to customer consent not being obtained.

Cellular carriers are legally required to take reasonable steps to protect certain customer information, including location information, according to the FCC.

The FCC said the “initial failure” worsened when carriers continued to sell access to location information without taking reasonable steps to protect it, after being told the safeguards were ineffective.

“Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us. These operators did not protect the information entrusted to them. Here we’re talking about some of the most sensitive data in your possession: customers’ real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

“As we resolve these cases – which were first proposed by the last administration – the Commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and ensuring they meet their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data,” he added.

All fined mobile phone operators stated that they intend to appeal the decision.

“The FCC order lacks legal and factual merit. It unfairly holds us accountable for other companies’ violations of our contractual requirements to obtain consent, ignores the immediate steps we took to address this company’s failures, and perversely punishes us for supporting life-saving location services like emergency medical alerts and roadside assistance which the FCC itself previously encouraged. We expect to appeal the order after conducting a legal review,” an AT&T spokesperson said in a statement.

A T-Mobile spokesperson also disputed the allegations and called the fine “excessive.”

“This industry-wide third-party aggregator location-based services program was discontinued more than five years ago after we took steps to ensure that critical services such as roadside assistance, fraud protection and emergency response would not be disrupted. We take our responsibility to keep customer data secure very seriously and have always supported the FCC’s commitment to protecting consumers, but this decision is wrong and the fine is excessive. We intend to challenge it,” the spokesperson said.

A Verizon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill, but told CNN in a statement also intends to challenge the agency’s order.

“When a bad actor gained unauthorized access to information relating to a very small number of customers, we quickly and proactively isolated the fraudster, shut down the program, and worked to ensure this could not happen again. Unfortunately, the FCC’s order is wrong on both the facts and the law, and we plan to appeal this decision,” Verizon said, according to CNN.