FCC Fines Wireless Carriers $200 Million For Sharing Customer Data (lightreading.com) 20
The Federal Communications Commission has fined the nation's largest wireless carriers for illegally sharing access to customers' location information without consent and without taking reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure. From a report: Sprint and T-Mobile -- which have merged since the investigation began -- face fines of more than $12 million and $80 million, respectively. AT&T is fined more than $57 million, and Verizon is fined almost $47 million. "Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us. These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers' real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "As we resolve these cases" which were first proposed by the last Administration -- the Commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and making sure they fulfill their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data."
Location-based ads (Score:3)
Does this include sharing with government(s) (Score:5, Interesting)
... without a warrant?
Re: (Score:1)
Ha! Hahahahahahaha!
No.
Hahahahahaha!
Fines get paid by the customers (Score:5, Informative)
Ultimately the customers will pay the fine. The carriers get hit with the bill and the stock price drops. In order to make up for the 'loss', the carriers are going to increase prices.
You didn't think the executives were going to eat the bill did you?
Re: (Score:2)
Ultimately the customers will pay the fine. The carriers get hit with the bill and the stock price drops. In order to make up for the 'loss', the carriers are going to increase prices.
You didn't think the executives were going to eat the bill did you?
Are you saying we should stop issuing fines as punishment? New legislation would fix this but lobbying would instantly kill any attempts.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm saying fines by themselves don't work. Corporations don't make decisions or take actions, people do. Hold people accountable and we might see some change for the better.
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and why not have the courts force the data purchasers to purge the data and get a their money back from the carriers?
I know it is basically impossible to delete it all but if it shouldn't have been sold to them then they shouldn't be permitted to still have or use it.
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously. A country that prays to the great God of Mammon cannot get its greedy assholes under control.
Re: (Score:2)
A one-time charge does not change marginal profit.
If marginal profits are positive why do you think the executives would be waiting to raise prices?
Re: (Score:2)
If the profit or stock price are affected then "never let a crisis go to waste" tactics kick in.
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If they could profitably raise prices like that they already would have.
never passed on (Score:3)
Too bad these fines never go to the people that were directly affected.
Re:never passed on (Score:4, Interesting)
Is that even $1 per person? (Score:3)
The government doesn't really care! (Score:5, Insightful)
In Canada, our government loves to talk about the privacy issues surrounding social media, but has never, even by accident, passed laws or bills, to force companies to make data private through intentional action. Think about it, is anyone forced to store your data in an encrypted state, where you own / control the private key? Does the government force personal responsibility for data, or government forced responsibility?
Have you ever heard of a government ran initiative, to force addressing that is free from tracking? Have ever seen a government force obfuscation for identification? What about forcing anonymous identification requirements? Governments do not want the tracking, or the identification removed, they want to rake in millions, well exploiting the same systems and policies, they fine companies over.
Out of interest, how much of that money is going to be paid to the customers violated? If the government cares, 100% of it.
Data Points and opinion. (Score:2)
The location data market was estimated to be worth 1.2 Billion dollars annually in 2021 (https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/09/30/theres-a-multibillion-dollar-market-for-your-phones-location-data)
At&t's annual revenue in 2023 was 122 billion (Bloomberg Terminal).
Verizon annual revenue in 2023 was 134 billion (Bloomberg Terminal).
These fines are literally rounding errors to T and VZ. :|