The FCC is reportedly fining Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T for selling customer location data, Recode

The notices appear to be the result of an FCC probe into how telecom companies sell real-time location information to data brokers. Cellphones are constantly pinging off towers, effectively giving carriers a real-time map of their customers ’whereabouts throughout the day. The New York Times and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

revealed in May that the carriers were selling this information to companies that used it to track people without their knowledge or consent. Though the four carriers said they would stop this practice, a Vice report Six months later showed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint were still doing it. In May , all four carriers were hit with a class action lawsuit for selling the data.

Wyden, a vocal advocate of digital privacy, is promoting legislation to hold companies and their executives accountable for such violations. The senator was not thrilled with the FCC’s response, saying that companies will simply see the “comically inadequate” fines as “the cost of doing business.” “It seems clear that Chairman [Ajit] Pai has failed to protect American consumers at every stage of the game, ”Wyden said in a statement provided to Recode. “This issue only came to light after my office and dedicated journalists discovered how wireless companies shared Americans’ locations willy-nilly. He only investigated after public pressure mounted. ” (Open Sourced) is made possible by the Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.

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