THE FCC IMPOSES $200 MILLION IN FINES ON FOUR US CARRIERS FOR UNLAWFULLY SHARING USER LOCATION DATA

From securityaffairs.com

The FCC has fined four major U.S. wireless carriers nearly $200 million for unlawfully selling access to real-time location data of their customers without consent. The fines come as a result of the Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL) issued by the FCC against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon in February 2020.

T-Mobile is facing a proposed fine exceeding $91 million, while AT&T is looking at one over $57 million. Verizon, on the other hand, faces a proposed fine exceeding $48 million, and Sprint faces a proposed fine of more than $12 million due to the actions taken by the FCC.

“The Federal Communications Commission today proposed fines against the nation’s four largest wireless carriers for apparently selling access to their customers’ location information without taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to that information.” reads the announcement published by FCC. “As a result, T-Mobile faces a proposed fine of more than $91 million; AT&T faces a proposed fine of more than $57 million; Verizon faces a proposed fine of more than $48 million; and Sprint faces a proposed fine of more than $12 million. The FCC also admonished these carriers for apparently disclosing their customers’ location information, without their authorization, to a third party.”

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