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FCC Investigating LocationSmart Over Phone-Tracking Flaw (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the someone's-in-trouble dept.

The FCC has opened an investigation into LocationSmart, a company that is buying your real-time location data from four of the largest U.S. carriers in the United States. The investigation comes a day after a security researcher from Carnegie Mellon University exposed a vulnerability on LocationSmart's website. CNET reports: The bug has prompted an investigation from the FCC, the agency said on Friday. An FCC spokesman said LocationSmart's case was being handled by its Enforcement Bureau. Since The New York Times revealed that Securus, an inmate call tracking service, had offered the same tracking service last week, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, called for the FCC and major wireless carriers to investigate these companies. On Friday, Wyden praised the investigation, but requested the FCC to expand its look beyond LocationSmart.

"The negligent attitude toward Americans' security and privacy by wireless carriers and intermediaries puts every American at risk," Wyden said. "I urge the FCC expand the scope of this investigation, and to more broadly probe the practice of third parties buying real-time location data on Americans." He is also calling for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to recuse himself from the investigation, because Pai was a former attorney for Securus.

19 comments

  1. I don't care about the flaw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Call your congresscritter and senator and tell'em you don't like companies buying up telco location data wholesale.

    Tell'em.

  2. i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    like the ftc, hell, even the usda or fda, maybe, or the campfire girls, for fuck sake, would be a better choice.. but no, not ashit pile's fcc. nope. not them.

    1. Re:i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [ i'd rather have someone else look at this.. ]
      like the ftc, hell, even the usda or fda, maybe, or the campfire girls, for fuck sake, would be a better choice.. but no, not ashit pile's fcc. nope. not them.

      But, are you willing to concede you were wrong if the Commission spanks them hard?

      My money is on you not being willing to admit it, nor anything positive Pai or Trump accomplishes. My bet is you'd credit *anyone* else, even the Campfire Girls or Hamas rather than Pai or Trump for anything positive they accomplish while blaming them for anything and everything you perceive as bad in the world no matter how little they may have to do with any of it.

    2. Re: i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do not trust the fcc to do the right thing. They are a regularory capture clusterfuck selling their unconstitutional rulemaking authority to the highest bidder. If they do the "right" thing, whatever that is, it just means AT&T agrees with / can also profit from whatever that happens to be.

    3. Re: i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are the wrong party to be spanked. Carriers should be forbidden from recording and sharing location data, period.

    4. Re: i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

      As opposed to the regulatory clusterfuck that is the SEC or the FDA, EPA, etc?

      When all of your regulatory agencies are populated by ex-corporate executives, lobbyists and a crowd of bootlickers begging to be hired on by said companies at 4x their current pay more laws aren't going to do anything other than blacklisting whoever votes to enact them.

    5. Re:i'd rather have someone else look at this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Name one thing this administration has done that was a benefit to the entire country and was not an end-around to pad someone's wallet.

      ONE THING. ..

      waiting. ..

      still waiting. ..

      really? ..

      can't come up with just one simple little thing? ..

      that's what i thought.

      go crawl back into the hole from which you came.

  3. Give the senators some common man privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone should purchase senators' location data history and make a nice interactive map where one can see senators' whereabouts. Give some taste of the "privacy" a regular citizen enjoys.
    THough I'm sure this kind of activity would be illegal where as selling normal person's location data is just fine.

    1. Re:Give the senators some common man privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. Use their wives and kids location instead.

  4. The real Gold in data these days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately the modern era of precious commodities is personal data and tracking. Every technology device we use has got several ways to track the user. None of it appears to be regulated or even in many cases known about. Some ways its very useful, some ways its very creepy.

  5. Nothing will happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing will happen, especially given who heads the FCC.

    This is a classic case of needing to appear to do something, without actually doing it.

  6. they want it by AndyKron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is it "negligent attitude toward Americans' security and privacy"? I think it was well thought out.

    1. Re:they want it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We were told the service providers were good at policing themselves and their customers too - that didn't take long to be proved wrong...

  7. A Jism Pie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is a tool load.

  8. Burglar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Just checked. He's not home, Let's smash and dash."

  9. Pfffff . . . . let's be honest here by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    The ONLY reason this is getting so much attention is due to the fact that everyone, INCLUDING all of our self-proclaimed important Congress critters, can be tracked just about anywhere they go without their knowledge.

    Nothing pisses off the Royalty more-so than being treated just like the peasants.

  10. Re: Cheap Movers in Dubai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about Fudge Packers, do you guys deal with them as well?