FCC Fines US Mobile Carriers $200M for Location Data Breach

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has hit the nation's major wireless carriers with a hefty fine for illegally sharing customer location data.

AT&T, Sprint (now merged with T-Mobile), T-Mobile, and Verizon will collectively pay nearly $200 million to settle the charges.

According to the FCC on Tuesday, these carriers sold access to customers' location information to "aggregators," who then resold it to third-party location-based service providers. 

The agency found that carriers attempted to shift responsibility for obtaining consent to share location data with downstream recipients. Even after being alerted to the issue, carriers failed to restrict access to the data.

T-Mobile faces the highest fine of $80 million, followed by AT&T with around $57 million, Verizon at approximately $47 million, and Sprint, now part of T-Mobile, with a $12 million fine.

T-Mobile's and Verizon's fines were reduced from the initial proposed amounts based on their responses to the FCC's notice.

The FCC initiated the investigation following public reports, including a 2019 article by journalist Joseph Cox for Motherboard.

Delays in the final decision were attributed to an agency deadlock awaiting the confirmation of a fifth commissioner.

AT&T spokesperson Alex Byers criticized the FCC's action, stating it lacks legal and factual merit. Byers highlighted the company's efforts to address the issue promptly and emphasized support for critical location services like emergency medical alerts.

Verizon spokesperson Richard Young defended the company, stating they swiftly addressed unauthorized access to customer information and discontinued the program years ago. Young asserted the FCC's decision was erroneous and vowed to appeal.

T-Mobile declined to provide an official response.