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posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 03 2020, @06:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the even-a-stopped-clock-is-right-twice-a-day dept.

According to a letter to congress from Ajit V. Pai, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC), carriers broke federal law by selling customer location data. Pai intends to followup with "Notice(s) of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture."

The Federal Communications Commission's enforcement bureau has determined that "one or more" wireless carriers' practices for handling location data violated the law, Chairman Ajit Pai told Congress Friday.

The sales of location data by major telecommunication carriers was highlighted the past few years in a series of Motherboard stories which exposed the widespread practice.

All four major U.S. carriers have said they no longer sell location data.

Potential FCC fines aren't the only fallout from the revelations. The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation is also suing AT&T for allegedly violating the Federal Communications Act.

That law requires telecoms to preserve confidentiality of "customer proprietary network information" -- including location data they obtain via their role as carriers.

The digital rights organization is seeking a court order prohibiting AT&T from sharing their location data.

AT&T argues that "the lawsuit should be dismissed, [since they] stopped providing geolocation data to aggregators"

It will be interesting to see if that line of legal reasoning works for them.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @06:48AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @06:48AM (#953048)

    If he turns on the telecoms, his white masters will have him put down. BAD DOG!!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @07:46AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @07:46AM (#953061)

    They probably ordered Pai to give them a slap on the wrist. Nothing to see here, move along.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @11:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @11:51AM (#953088)

      Could be, but he Arkancides himself with three shots to the back of the head, don't say I didn't warn you!