FCC Imposes Nearly $200 Million Fine on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon for Unlawfully Sharing Location Data

The Federal Communications Commission fined the largest mobile carriers in the U.S. due to allegedly illegal sharing of customers' location data without permission.

AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile have a combined fine of almost $200 million.

U.S. Mobile Carriers Face Fine for Illegal Data Sharing

The FCC fined T-Mobile the most at $80 million which is followed by AT&T with $57 million, while Verizon is fined with $47 million. Sprint, which has since merged with T-Mobile at the time of the investigation, was only fined with $12 million.

The FCC detailed that the telecom companies had "sold access to its customers' location information to 'aggregators,' who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers." Moreover, the companies were accused of attempting to offload the responsibility to gather customer consent.

The agency also revealed that the companies failed to mitigate and limit access to customers' sensitive information even after being aware of the issue.

U.S. Mobile Carriers to Appeal Against FCC Fines

The telecom companies have shared their responses against the FCC claims, citing their plans to appeal after conducting a legal review. AT&T denies the accusations and states that it lacks both legal and factual basis.

"It unfairly holds us responsible for another company's violation of our contractual requirements to obtain consent, ignores the immediate steps we took to address that company's failures, and perversely punishes us for supporting life-saving location services...that the FCC itself previously encouraged," said AT&T spokesperson Alex Byers.

Meanwhile, Verizon spokesperson Richard Young stated that the company quickly addressed the issue of unauthorized access to information which affected a small number of customers. Likewise, the company also claimed that the FCC is wrong on facts and law.