The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined cell phone companies AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon almost $200 million for illegally sharing customer locations without their consent.
“These companies failed in their duty to protect the information in their possession. “Here we are talking about some of the most sensitive information they have: the real-time location of their customers, where they are going and who they are,” Jessica Rosenworcel, the chairwoman of the FCC, wrote in a statement.
Authorities began investigating the companies in 2019 when they saw that they were selling customer locations to third parties. The commission considered imposing fines in 2020, but companies were given time to respond to complaints before imposition.
The FCC maintains that the four companies are required by federal law to take reasonable steps to protect certain customer data.
“The FCC order lacks both legal and factual basis,” AT&T said in a statement. “It unfairly holds us responsible for another company’s violation of our contractual requirements for obtaining consent, ignores the immediate steps we have taken to address that company’s failures, and unjustifiably penalizes us for supporting lifesaving services such as medical alerts and roadside assistance. , which the FCC itself encouraged in the past. We hope to appeal the order after conducting a legal review.”
T-Mobile was saddled with the largest fine: $80 million. Sprint, which has merged with T-Mobile since the investigation began, was fined $12 million; 47 million for Verizon and 57 million for AT&T.
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