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Sprint To Stop Selling Location Data To Third Parties (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the some-relief dept.

After AT&T and T-Mobile said they would stop selling their customers' phone location data to third parties, Sprint has followed suit. From a report: Last week, Motherboard revealed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint had been selling their customers' real-time location data that ultimately ended up in the hands of bounty hunters and people unauthorized to handle it. Motherboard found this by purchasing the capability to geolocate a phone for $300 on the black market. In response, AT&T and T-Mobile said they were stopping all sales of location data to third parties.

Nearly a week later Sprint has committed to doing the same, in a statement to Motherboard. "As a result of recent events, we have decided to end our arrangements with data aggregators," a Sprint spokesperson told Motherboard in an email. Sprint did not provide a timeline of when this data access selling may end, but T-Mobile and AT&T have previously said their processes will be complete in March.

12 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Sure they are by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Differential analysis:

    Sprint, like all the others, is just negotiating a big price increase for their customer's location data.

    These are corporations people, if they could figure out how to kill you and continue to make money, they would.

    Or of course, you could just take them at their word.

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    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Sure they are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Tobacco, pharma ... they already have figured out how to kill us and make money.

    2. Re:Sure they are by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Tobacco, pharma ... they already have figured out how to kill us and make money.

      Exactly. Good point.

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      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    3. Re:Sure they are by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Nah, not the same. If you smoke, it's because one day you made a decision to smoke. And although you may feel like you made the decision to use a phone, you really have to have a phone today to operate as a normal person (very few people don't have a phone). And now they make these phones specifically to track you, so you have no choice in the matter of "the creation of data on you".

      So it's worse than them finding a way to kill you and make money. They found a way to make you live as a slave to the market and make money off of you. Don't forget, most all of the money that empowers these huge corporations has to do with personal data, and marketing to based on that data.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    4. Re:Sure they are by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Nah, not the same. If you smoke, it's because one day you made a decision to smoke. And although you may feel like you made the decision to use a phone, you really have to have a phone today to operate as a normal person (very few people don't have a phone). And now they make these phones specifically to track you, so you have no choice in the matter of "the creation of data on you". So it's worse than them finding a way to kill you and make money. They found a way to make you live as a slave to the market and make money off of you. Don't forget, most all of the money that empowers these huge corporations has to do with personal data, and marketing to based on that data.

      You are mixing points, and losing the main point. Corporations have zero concern for the customer, including if their activities damage or kill you. There is money to be made by selling your personal data, so it simply will be sold, and if a corporation like Sprint says they aren't selling it, that comes under the heading of not providing enough value to the stockholders. As amoral entities, the human mouthpiece serving the corporation and stockholders is simply lying. Exact 1:1 correlation with specific activities is not relevant, the amoral pursuit of money even if it harms the individual customer is the point.

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      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re:Sure they are by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Yes, I understand your point, and you're correct. Corporations will do anything for money because 'We gotta pay the shareholders.' This is pretty simple to understand. Morals don't apply at the corporate level because it's all about money. But when it comes to killing people while making a profit, you can't blame the corporations for that, but rather the people smoking/drinking.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
  2. Incoming price hike by Titanek · · Score: 2

    This likely will be frowned upon by the shareholders, who see their payout shrink, and force the telecompanies to compensate by hiking up subscription prices.

  3. Good by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

    Certain things even the most "don't give a rat's" attitude general public are creeped about about. Having random people tracking you down physically might just be one of them.

    1. Re:Good by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      But if you are on the lam, shouldn't you be afraid of bounty hunters?

      Creeps and stalkers, sure. But people paid to track you down for skipping out on your criminal trial?

      This story uses "and bounty hunters!" as if it is an obvious downside rather than upside.

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      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  4. I don't care why they stopped... by Excelcia · · Score: 1

    ...I care about why they started.

  5. Until when? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    They will restart the monetization as soon as you get distracted by the next shiny thing

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  6. Info and questions by markdavis · · Score: 1

    >"After AT&T and T-Mobile said they would stop selling their customers' phone location data to third parties, Sprint has followed suit."

    1) Yet the information will still be collected.
    2) Yet the information will still be stored.
    3) We have no idea how long the information is stored.
    4) The announcement says "sell", nothing about giving, trading, lending, supplying to the government, etc.
    5) Will they put it in their user agreements/disclosures? Or is this just some verbal "promise"?
    6) Where is Verizon in all this? Somehow their absence doesn't surprise me.