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AT&T is trying to force customers into arbitration in order to avoid a class-action complaint over the telecom's former practice of selling users' real-time location data.
[...] The class-action complaint [(pdf)] was filed in July against AT&T and two location data aggregators called LocationSmart and Zumigo. "AT&T used LocationSmart and Zumigo to manage the buying and selling of its customers' real-time location data," the lawsuit said. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for customers, an injunction preventing AT&T from selling location data, and certification of a class including all AT&T wireless subscribers between 2011 and the present "whose carrier-level location data AT&T permitted or caused to be used or accessed by any third party without proper authorization."
The lawsuit says:
Despite vowing to its customers that it does not "sell [their] Personal Information to anyone for any purpose," AT&T has been selling its customers' real-time location data to credit agencies, bail bondsmen, and countless other third parties without the required customer consent and without any legal authority. AT&T's practice is an egregious and dangerous breach of Plaintiffs' and all AT&T customers' privacy, as well as a violation of state and federal law.
AT&T previously denied that selling phone location data was illegal, even though Section 222 of the Communications Act says phone companies may not use or disclose customer location information "without the express prior authorization of the customer." The lawsuit alleges that AT&T violated the Communications Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, the California Constitution's right to privacy, and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
A series of reports by Motherboard beginning in January 2019 showed that T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T continued selling customers' real-time location data after all the major cellular carriers promised to stop doing so. The data "end[ed] up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country," Motherboard reported at the time. The news site also wrote about AT&T's motion to compel arbitration yesterday.
Personally, I think sale of said data is a serious invasion of privacy and hope AT&T gets hurt where it counts ($$,$$$,$$$,$$$).
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday September 24 2019, @09:09AM
I worked for a company that handled tier 1 support calls for small ISP's and I had to take 2 weeks of training classes with the senior staff who were pretty knowledgeable. One of the staff, who was kindof a soft spoken round guy with glasses, a family guy, not in any way some wingnut with an agenda, dropped this nugget one day in class and my jaw is still dropped:
"I had to train for several months after I was hired as a Verizon engineer, and I can promise you that every call in this country has been recorded since January 1, 1964.'
If it had been any other date, I might have called bullshit. But that is how they got away with killing John F. Kennedy, and any semblence of rights has been a joke played on a completely gaslit population since long before I was born. And now all that traffic and nsa data is shared with israel, who is clearly using it to establish domination, and sees the united states not as an ally but as a chump puppet. I know this is fourth hand, but if I had to I can confirm aspects of my story, I sure can.
That is also how they knew they could get away with the kennedy assassination, if any actual movement of people or information was about to come out that would hurt them, they would pick it up on the wires and that person wouldn't get very far. It makes so much more sense than thinking that they waited until 9/11, the day on which all of the evidence against the same peoples' other crimes was also destroyed.
So waiting for any of these companies and institutions to save us is not going to work, like usual. The companies are there to enforce power, not help us have any. Lawsuits may help, I'll support that effort.
If we want any freedom, it is going to have to rely on our personal computers and personal encryption software, which is something we can actually work on rather than rallying for some or another board of directors to rescue us.
thesesystemsarefailing.net
(sorry for 2x, but decided this ended up being a top level comment)