The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it has levied almost $200 million in fines against “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.”

The FCC’s allegations include that the carriers sold access to customers’ location information to aggregators, which then resold the data to third-party location-based service providers. The disclosure to the aggregators and the redisclosures to third parties did not include customer consent. The FCC alleged that “customers’ real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are,” is some of the most sensitive data in carriers’ possession.”

The fines against the wireless carriers stem from a violation of § 222 of the Communications Act, which requires carriers to “take reasonable measures to protect certain customer information, including location information,” as well as maintain the confidentiality of the data and obtain “affirmative, express customer consent before using, disclosing, or allowing access to such information. The FCC maintains that these obligations apply when the carriers share customer information with third parties.

The FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force led the investigation, which started with customer complaints that a Missouri Sheriff was using a location-finding service to track the location of individuals.

Photo of Linn Foster Freedman Linn Foster Freedman

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her…

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her practice on compliance with all state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. She counsels a range of public and private clients from industries such as construction, education, health care, insurance, manufacturing, real estate, utilities and critical infrastructure, marine and charitable organizations, on state and federal data privacy and security investigations, as well as emergency data breach response and mitigation. Linn is an Adjunct Professor of the Practice of Cybersecurity at Brown University and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law.  Prior to joining the firm, Linn served as assistant attorney general and deputy chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Rhode Island. She earned her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law and her B.A., with honors, in American Studies from Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Read her full rc.com bio here.