A US federal district court has declined to review a combined $92 million fine imposed on T-Mobile and Sprint for selling customer geolocation data to third parties. The court ruled that Congress recognizes the sensitive nature of such information and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) correctly determined that customer location data is protected under the Communications Act.
The FCC fined the companies after an investigation found they had programs in place until 2019 that sold access to customers’ location data to two data aggregators, LocationSmart and Zumigo. Those companies then sold the data to dozens of different third-party businesses, which could track individuals constantly due to the constant ping required by T-Mobile and Sprint phones to maintain network service.
The investigation revealed that internal audits showed numerous instances where auditors knew third parties were not holding to the agreed-upon agreements. The FCC fined the companies a combined $200 million, with T-Mobile responsible for $92 million in penalties. The court ruled that the telecoms’ arguments about the case lacking merit, and Eric Null, co-director of privacy and data at the Center for Democracy and Technology, hailed the ruling as a “huge win for privacy” to hold telecoms accountable when they sell off customers’ location data to the highest bidder.
Source: https://cyberscoop.com/fcc-court-upholds-92-million-dollar-fine-on-telecoms