They caught T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon selling their customers’ location data and now, a federal court has confirmed that they must face a fine of 92 million dollars. We are talking about them selling where and what their users do… who knows to whom, so this fine even seems small to us.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had been clear about this for a long time, but now a judge has finally ratified it. And the worst part is that the company not only shared that information with third parties, but did so through intermediaries who later resold that data as if it were anything and not important user information…
What data was being sold?
Every time you use your phone, it connects to an antenna to get coverage. That connection leaves a trace: an exact location of where you are. With that data, which is stored for months or even years, your daily routine can be reconstructed to the millimeter. Literally, they can know if you go to the bakery every morning or if you were at a protest.
T-Mobile and Sprint (which are now merged) sold this information to companies like LocationSmart and Zumigo. And even though they detected illegal uses, such as people tracking others without authorization, they continued selling those data without doing anything to prevent the abuses. Just like that.
The court did not believe T-Mobile’s defense
T-Mobile did not deny the facts. What it tried was to justify itself by saying that the FCC had misinterpreted the laws and that the fine was exaggerated. But the court did not believe it, location data is sensitive information, and selling it without permission is illegal, although the other two companies won the appeal, T-Mobile was not so lucky.
So, since the company itself had agreed to pay the fine before appealing, it could no longer complain that there was no jury trial. The judge settled that too.
AT&T and Verizon, also involved
As we told you, this case does not only affect T-Mobile. The FCC also fined AT&T 57 million and Verizon almost 47 for the same reason: trading with their users’ data without any kind of control, but why do they do that?! The difference is that AT&T managed to overturn the fine in another court, and Verizon’s case is still open.
It is not just a fine, it is a privacy problem
This case goes far beyond money, what has been put on the table is how digital privacy is handled in a country like the United States, where there is still no law as strict as the General Data Protection Regulation that they have, for example, in Europe.
Today, the phone you carry in your pocket is a tracker. Everything is recorded: calls, messages, browsing… And if someone wants, they can buy that information because they are selling you. That simple.
What did the carriers say?
That they were not violating any law, and they requested a review of the case, can you believe it?
And now what is T-Mobile going to do?
For now, they have said that they are “reviewing the court decision,” which is an elegant way of saying that they are seeing if they can appeal again to get rid of the fine. This time before more judges or even the Supreme Court, but whatever happens, the company’s image has already been damaged and it will be very difficult for affected users to trust it again…
A scandal? A warning
And even though the figure may seem large, for a company like T-Mobile it is pocket change. Now a new debate opens, what they do with our data and our privacy and why, why can they play with our information?