In April 2024, the FCC imposed nearly $200 million in combined fines on major U.S. mobile network operators for improperly sharing sensitive customer location information (CLI) data without obtaining the customers’ consent, Barron’s reported. The fines were part of a years-long investigation, triggered by revelations that carriers were selling real-time location information to data “aggregators,” who then passed access to third-party location-based service providers, often including police agencies, bail-bond agencies, bounty hunters, and others.
T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) received the largest penalty, $92.3 million comprising $80.1 million for T-Mobile plus $12.2 million for Sprint (now part of T-Mobile). AT&T (NYSE: T) was fined $57.3 million. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) faced fines totaling $46.9 million.
The FCC found that each carrier had effectively shifted the burden of obtaining consent onto downstream data recipients, resulting in widespread nondisclosure of user approval. Moreover, the MNOs did not halt these practices even after learning that their safeguards were insufficient.
All three MNO defenses emphasized that CLI-sharing programs had been discontinued years earlier, that the fines were disproportionate, and that they had implemented compliance measures. AT&T argued the FCC’s order lacked legal and factual basis; Verizon described the ruling as erroneous on both law and facts; T-Mobile called the fine excessive and pledged to contest it.
In the first major decision handed down August 15, a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against T-Mobile and its subsidiary Sprint.
The ruling explained that since “every cell phone is a tracking device,” and each time it connects to a nearby cell site, the device sends the carrier a record of the phone’s location and, by extension, the location of the customer who owns it. The court said, “Over time, this information becomes an exhaustive history of a customer’s whereabouts and ‘provides an intimate window into [that] person’s life.'”
Decisions on the AT&T and Verizon appeals are pending.
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