The FCC has completed investigating carriers’ unlawful exposure and sale of subscribers’ real-time location data, Chairman Ajit Pai has shared with lawmakers within the House of Representatives. In his letters, he advised Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. and others that the company has resolved an in-depth probe: one or more carriers “apparently violated federal law.” Pai has additionally promised the lawmakers that the company goes to take action against the offending carriers to ensure that they adjust to laws that protect consumers’ sensitive information.
Back in 2018, it got here to gentle that carriers promote their customers’ real-time location data to aggregators, which then resold it to different firms and even gave it away. Last year, a Motherboard report additionally revealed that bail bond firms and bounty hunters have been buying people’s location data for years, permitting them to use that information to track their targets.
All four major US carriers promised to cease promoting buyer location knowledge to aggregators after the information first got here out. The companies made good on their phrase, although it took them a year to do so: They informed FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel that they’d already halted sales to aggregators after she requested an update in 2019.