Dive Brief:
- The Federal Communications Commission fined four major wireless carriers — T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon — nearly $200 million for illegally sharing customers’ location data Tuesday.
- The wireless carriers failed to get consumer consent before selling customers’ location data to “aggregators,” which in turn sold it to third parties, according to the FCC’s four-year investigation. Even after becoming aware consumer consent was not being obtained, the four carriers continued to sell customers’ data.
- The FCC fined Sprint and T-Mobile — which merged in 2020 — more than $12 million and $80 million, respectively; AT&T more than $57 million; and Verizon nearly $47 million.
Dive Insight:
The FCC’s fines come at a time when the vast majority of customers are concerned about data privacy and mistrustful of businesses’ use of their data.
“These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a prepared statement. “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.”
A recent Cassie survey found that 92% of consumers believe that companies often prioritize profits over protecting customer data.
This lack of trust hurts companies. The Cassie survey found that nearly 3 in 5 consumers prioritize their online data privacy above all else and will simply forgo certain online experiences and websites to maintain it.
The Biden administration views consumer data privacy as an enforcement issue, with the Department of Transportation reviewing airlines data practices and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau putting financial companies on notice that they may be held liable for shoddy data practices.
