FCC Proposes to Fine Wireless Carriers $200M for Selling Customer Location Data
Summary: The FCC proposed fines of more than $200 million against the four largest U.S. wireless carriers for selling access to customer location data without adequate safeguards against unauthorized access, with T-Mobile facing $91 million, AT&T more than $57 million, Verizon more than $48 million, and Sprint more than $12 million. The FCC said the amounts differ based on how long each carrier kept selling access and how many entities it sold to, and the fines remain proposed because the carriers can contest them.
Why it matters: The action followed a 2018 New York Times story on Securus Technologies selling location data to law enforcement and a KrebsOnSecurity report on an unsecured LocationSmart demo, yet in 2019 a reporter located a test phone for $300 through a bounty hunter - and critics including Sen. Ron Wyden called the penalties 'comically inadequate' against carriers with revenues in the tens of billions.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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