Security News > 2020 > February > FCC Proposes to Fine Wireless Carriers $200M for Selling Customer Location Data
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission today proposed fines of more than $200 million against the nation's four largest wireless carriers for selling access to their customers' location information without taking adequate precautions to prevent unauthorized access to that data.
While the fines would be among the largest the FCC has ever levied, critics say the penalties don't go far enough to deter wireless carriers from continuing to sell customer location data.
An FCC statement said "The size of the proposed fines for the four wireless carriers differs based on the length of time each carrier apparently continued to sell access to its customer location information without reasonable safeguards and the number of entities to which each carrier continued to sell such access."
In response, the carriers promised to "Wind down" location data sharing agreements with third-party companies.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of the FCC's inaction on wireless location data sharing, likewise called for more stringent consumer privacy laws, calling the proposed punishment "Comically inadequate fines that won't stop phone companies from abusing Americans' privacy the next time they can make a quick buck."