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FCC Fines Major U.S. Wireless Carriers for Selling Customer Location Data


The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today levied fines totaling nearly $200 million against the four major carriers -- including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- for illegally sharing access to customers' location information without consent.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission(FCC) today levied fines totaling nearly $200 million against the four major carriers — including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon — for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent. The commission said it took action after Sen. Ron Wyden(D-Ore.) sent a letter to the FCC detailing how a company called Securus Technologies had been selling location data on customers of virtually any major mobile provider to law enforcement officials. That same month, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that LocationSmart — a data aggregation firm working with the major wireless carriers — had a free, unsecured demo of its service online that anyone could abuse to find the near-exact location of virtually any mobile phone in North America.

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FCC fines America's largest wireless carriers $200 million for selling customer location data