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Senators Call On FCC To Investigate Carriers Selling Location Data To Bounty Hunters (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: On Tuesday, Motherboard revealed that major American telcos T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint are selling customer location data of users in an unregulated market that trickles down to bounty hunters and people not authorized to handle such information. In our investigation, we purchased the real-time location of a cell phone from a bail industry source for $300, pinpointing it to a specific part of Queens, New York. The issue potentially impacts hundreds of millions of cell phone users in the United States, with customers likely unaware that their location data is being sold and resold through multiple companies, with even the telcos sometimes having little idea where it ends up and how it is used.
Now, Senators and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have urged government bodies to investigate, with some calling for regulation that would ensure customers are properly made aware of how their data is being sold. "The American people have an absolute right to the privacy of their data, which is why I'm extraordinarily troubled by reports of this system of repackaging and reselling location data to unregulated third party services for potentially nefarious purposes. If true, this practice represents a legitimate threat to our personal and national security," Senator Kamala Harris told Motherboard in a statement. Harris explicitly called on the FCC to investigate the issue. "The FCC needs to immediately investigate these serious security concerns and take the necessary steps to protect the privacy of American consumers," she said. On Tuesday, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted: "The FCC needs to investigate. Stat."
"It shouldn't be that you pay a few hundred dollars to a bounty hunter and then they can tell you in real time where a phone is within a few hundred meters. That's not right. This entire ecosystem needs some oversight," she added on MSNBC's Velshi & Ruhle show on Wednesday. "I think we've got to get to this fast."
Senators Mark Warner and Ron Wyden are also calling on the FCC to act.
Now, Senators and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have urged government bodies to investigate, with some calling for regulation that would ensure customers are properly made aware of how their data is being sold. "The American people have an absolute right to the privacy of their data, which is why I'm extraordinarily troubled by reports of this system of repackaging and reselling location data to unregulated third party services for potentially nefarious purposes. If true, this practice represents a legitimate threat to our personal and national security," Senator Kamala Harris told Motherboard in a statement. Harris explicitly called on the FCC to investigate the issue. "The FCC needs to immediately investigate these serious security concerns and take the necessary steps to protect the privacy of American consumers," she said. On Tuesday, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted: "The FCC needs to investigate. Stat."
"It shouldn't be that you pay a few hundred dollars to a bounty hunter and then they can tell you in real time where a phone is within a few hundred meters. That's not right. This entire ecosystem needs some oversight," she added on MSNBC's Velshi & Ruhle show on Wednesday. "I think we've got to get to this fast."
Senators Mark Warner and Ron Wyden are also calling on the FCC to act.
Not authorized. That's rich. How 'bout my 3 friends, Benjamin, Benny, and Ben? They authorized?
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
Maybe they'll do something about private mis-use of private info. Probably not, but it makes a good soundbite.
But where's the upset about government agencies (e.g. police) using Stingrays to intercept cell phone calls? Which, BTW, is already illegal (but ignored) since they transmit on licensed frequencies.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
FCC is shut down to prevent border security measures from being built.
NO. Shut down to prevent billions spent on a made up distraction issue to placate red hat wearing morons.
A budget was passed last year by both houses and both parties in Congress. Trump agreed to it.
Then, some losers on Fox News - a network of nothing but opinions lacking facts - said Trump is being weak for not demanding funding for a wall his promised would be paid for by the Mexicans.
So he then reneged on the deal - big surprise!
The Democrats, tired of being the jerks, said too bad! Let's do our original deal.
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) the Senate majority leader lying spineless asshole, is too much of a coward to stand up to Trump.
So here we are.
The wall will NOT solve ANY of the issues Trump is saying it will solve. The Wall is NOTHING but a distraction issue for his idiotic base. (I'm done with being polite. I'm gonna 'say it like it is': Trump supporters are morons.)
BUT wait! There's more, Even IF the government wasn't shutdown, we have seen that the Trump administration doesn't give a rat's ass about consumer protections . Case in point: the CFPB being neutered.
tl;dr; the current shutdown is 100% Trump and the Republicans' fault.
Companies must get express permission, revocable at any time to sell any data obtained from a paying client.
You want to sell my data? You can't charge me a penny. Because that penny establishes a legal responsibility to protect my privacy.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
by telecoms, the Headline would read:
Senators Call On FCC To Investigate Carriers Selling Location Data
I'm just waiting for the "if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide" crowd to chime in...
No, the FCC is shut down due to a temper tantrum. President man baby needs his ego stroked to the tune of 5 billion dollars and he's willing to hold the federal government hostage to get it.
Well, since the Mexico paying for it part didn't pan out, we're half way there. The Wall part won't pan out either and we can get on with spending the money for something that might actually work.
Washington D.C. did it a couple of decades ago, and they haven't reversed that decision, so I guess at the very least, it wasn't enough of a disaster to bother fixing.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.