The FCC fines T-Mobile for disclosing customer locations

the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC, in English) Almost fined $200 million to cell phone companies AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon To illegally share customers' location without their consent.

“These companies have failed in their duty to protect the information they hold. Here we are talking about some of the most sensitive information they have: the physical location of their customers, where they are going and who they are,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

Authorities began investigating the companies in 2019 when they saw that they were selling customer websites to third parties.. The authority considered imposing fines in 2020, but companies were given a period to respond to complaints before imposing them.

The FCC asserts that the four companies are required under federal law to take reasonable steps to protect certain customer data.

“The FCC order lacks a legal and factual basis,” AT&T said in a statement.. “It unfairly holds us liable 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 unjustifiably penalizes us for supporting life-saving services like medical alerts and roadside assistance, which the FCC itself encouraged in “We hope to appeal the matter after a legal review.”

The largest fine was imposed on T-Mobile: $80 million. Sprint, which has merged with T-Mobile since the investigation began, was fined $12 million; 47 million for Verizon and 57 million for AT&T.