Security News > 2024 > April > FCC fines major wireless carriers over illegal location data sharing

The Federal Communications Commission fined the nation's largest wireless carriers for illegally sharing access to customers' location information without consent and without taking reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure.

Wireless carriers shared access to customers' location data.

"Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us. These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers' real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau investigations of the four carriers found that each carrier sold access to its customers' location information to "Aggregators," who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.

"The protection and use of sensitive personal data such as location information is sacrosanct," said Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau and Chair of its Privacy and Data Protection Task Force.

The investigations that led to these fines started following public reports that customers' location information was being disclosed by the largest American wireless carriers without customer consent or other legal authorization to a Missouri Sheriff through a "Location-finding service" operated by Securus, a provider of communications services to correctional facilities, to track the location of numerous individuals.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/04/30/fcc-wireless-carriers-fines/