FCC Slams Telecom Giants with $200M Location Data Fine

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined the largest American telecommunications companies nearly $200 million for disseminating customer location data without their consent.

Penalties were imposed on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon after Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL) were issued to them in February 2020 for disclosing their customers’ location information to third parties. The FCC has now issued final forfeiture orders.

Among the fines imposed are $12 million for Sprint and $80 million for T-Mobile (the two companies merged after the investigation began), over $57 million for AT&T, and nearly $47 million for Verizon.

During the investigation, the FCC found that all four mobile operators were selling their customers’ real-time location data to so-called “aggregators,” who, in turn, resold them to dozens of third-party service providers. It is reported that all operators have now ceased such activities.

According to an FCC representative, the companies attempted to shift the responsibility for obtaining customer consent onto the recipients of the information, often resulting in a lack of proper customer consent. Moreover, after realizing the ineffectiveness of security measures, they continued to sell access to the information without taking reasonable steps to protect it from unauthorized access.

Under Section 222 of the U.S. Communications Act, telecommunications operators in the United States are required to take reasonable steps to protect customer data, such as location information, keep this information confidential, and obtain customer consent before using or providing access to it.

A Verizon representative stated that the company is already “deeply committed to protecting customer privacy” and intends to appeal the FCC’s decision, as it is, in the company’s opinion, “incorrect both factually and legally.”

AT&T also plans to appeal the decision, citing “lack of legal and factual basis” and accusing the FCC of unfairly punishing support for vital location-based services.

A representative of T-Mobile has not yet commented on the situation.