Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T are all reportedly in legal hot water as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allegedly found the major carriers sharing user location data to "aggregators" without consent, failing to protect the data against "unauthorized disclosure."
Rejecting the accusations, the cell providers announced they would contest the fine.
With a charge of $12 million for its 2020 acquisition of Sprint, T-Mobile's subsidiary earned the largest penalties of $80 million. According to the agency's notification, Verizon was penalized over $7 million and AT&T more than $57 million.
The fines are in response to the FCC's initial accusations, made during the Trump administration in 2020, that cellphone providers had broken the law by failing to protect consumers' location data.
(Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Following the FCC Enforcement Bureau's investigations into the four carriers, it was discovered that each carrier had sold "aggregators" access to its customers' location data, which the aggregators had subsequently resold to other location-based service providers.
Each carrier allegedly sought to shift the burden of obtaining customer agreement to downstream recipients of location data by doing this, which frequently resulted in the lack of legitimate customer consent being received.
The FCC claimed this initial shortcoming was made worse when the carriers kept selling access to location data without taking appropriate steps to prevent unwanted access after realizing their safeguards were insufficient.
The alleged initial shortcoming was made worse when the carriers kept selling access to location data without taking appropriate steps to prevent unwanted access after realizing their safeguards were insufficient.
Read Also: FCC's Net Neutrality: 3-2 Vote Favors Restoration of Regulations, For a Better Internet
The Mobile Carriers Respond
According to The Hill, an AT&T spokesperson has responded there is no factual or legal basis for the FCC order. The spokesperson argues that the company is being unfairly held accountable for another company's failure to obtain consent by their contract.
The spokesperson adds that it is punishing them for supporting life-saving location services like roadside assistance and emergency medical services that the FCC itself previously encouraged and that it ignores the prompt action the company took to address that company's failures.
According to the spokeswoman, the business will appeal the ruling following a legal analysis.
A T-Mobile spokesperson has also responded, stating that after the corporation took action to guarantee that vital services like roadside assistance, fraud protection, and emergency response would not be affected, the industry-wide third-party aggregator location-based services initiative was terminated more than five years ago.
The spokesman continues that the company takes its duty to protect customer data seriously and has always backed the FCC's efforts to safeguard customers.
However, the judgment was made incorrectly, and the fine is "excessive." The T-Mobile representative said the business will contest the fine, similar to AT&T.
Verizon also intends to challenge the fine, echoing the two mobile carriers' statement that after a single malicious actor obtained unlawful access to data about a minimal number of consumers, Verizon swiftly and proactively disconnected the fraudster, terminated the program, and took steps to ensure it would not happen again.
According to Verizon, the FCC order is incorrect regarding the law and the facts.
AT&T's Woes
This most recent fine appears to be another issue for AT&T following a nationwide network outage that disrupted numerous customers' crucial services last February.
Frustrated and inconvenienced, users reported having trouble accessing the internet, sending texts, and placing calls. Throughout the roughly 11-hour outage, AT&T subscribers nationwide were impacted.
Numerous users vented their complaints on social media, and reports from different areas showed the extent of the disruption.
AT&T announced plans to compensate impacted consumers through billing credits in reaction to the outage.
According to sources, these credits, which are meant to compensate users for the annoyance they endured during the outage, are also intended to equal the average cost of a full day of wireless service.
Related Article: FCC Requires Broadband 'Nutrition' Labels for ISPs to Ensure Transparency
