Federal Communications Commission finds that the sale of location information by a major mobile carrier is against the law


By

Sebastian Hietsch

On January 31, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that at least one wireless carrier was clearly subject to federal law on the issue of a major U.S. mobile carrier selling location information for customer terminals. Violation. '

Chairman Pai's Response to Representatives Regarding Location Data | Federal Communications Commission
https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-pais-response-representatives-regarding-location-data

Phone Users' Privacy Violated as Locations Shared, FCC Says-Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-31/wireless-carriers-violated-privacy-by-sharing-location-fcc-says

Ajit Pai: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/ajit-pai-carrier-sales-of-phone-location-data-is-illegal-fcc-plans-punishment/

Leading U.S. mobile carriers such as AT & T , T-Mobile , Verizon Wireless and Sprint have been pointed out over the years as selling user location information. A big way in May 2018 was reported then, in June 2018 companies from the 'sale of the location information is to stop' announcement . However, it became clear that some carriers still sold location information as of January 2019.

A major mobile carrier sells location information of customer terminals-gigazine


by

ROBIN WORRALL

The issue was of great interest in the U.S., and 11 members of the Congress, including President of the US House of Representatives on Energy and Commerce, said in a statement in November 2019, `` Large mobile carriers have no consumer consent or They sell real-time location information without knowledge and do not protect their privacy, 'she wrote to the FCC (PDF file) . Pallone and his colleagues also noted that 'Bounty Hunter uses location information.'

You can read how Bounty Hunter used location information in the following articles:

It turns out that `` Bounty Hunter '' purchased the user's location information held by a major mobile carrier-gigazine


by Vitaly Vlasov

In response to a letter from Pallone and his colleagues, FCC Chairman Agito Pi said on January 31, 2020, `` Extensive research has concluded that one or more wireless operators clearly violated federal law. I got it. ' Although he declined to say which wireless operator violated federal law, Chairman Pai states that a notice of fines will be sent to the wireless operator.

`` A shady broker sells location information with hundreds of meters of accuracy for just a few hundred dollars (tens of thousands of yen), '' said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenwaldell, who repeatedly asked the Chairman to give details of the matter. For more than a year, the FCC has been silent for the news of doing so, and it's chilly considering what the black market does with this location. Threatens the safety and privacy of Americans in the United States.On January 31, the FCC finally announced that this was a violation of the law.A huge number of Americans use wireless devices every day, but mobile carriers No one has agreed to sell location information by. It is unfortunate that the FCC took an incredibly long time to reach such a clear conclusion as this one. ' 'We are watching the FCC to make sure that the wireless carrier is not missed,' said Palone.

in Mobile,   Security, Posted by darkhorse_log