Security News > 2022 > September > Revealed: US telcos admit to storing, handing over location data

US mobile carriers know a lot about where their customers are located, and according to letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission, they routinely store such data for years, willingly hand it over to law enforcement if served a proper subpoena, and say users can't opt out.

News that cellular carriers are storing sensitive location data isn't surprising given previous actions taken against AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US and Sprint by the FCC in 2020 for selling location data to third parties.

Prior to the reversal, a number of US senators made an effort to ban data brokers from selling location and health data information, but the bill has sat in committee since June.

Others have quietly acquiesced to the new legal standard and have given authorities the data they want, even though it's precise location data that can provide the same details as cellular records.

Given the high profile of such cases recently, the police and other agencies looking for location data may not want to approach telecom companies, but that's not necessarily a good thing when the alternative is a data broker.

Fog Data Science is one such data broker, and has multiple deals in place with US law enforcement to provide data sourced from mobile apps containing tracking code.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/09/02/us_carriers_fcc_data_report/