US Telecom Operators Say They've (Mostly) Stopped Selling Your Location Data To Shady Middlemen (gizmodo.com) 52
In a collection of letters published by FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday, representatives of T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon all said they had ceased or significantly curtailed the sale of their customers' location data to companies whose shady practices brought to light triggered alarms among privacy advocates and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. From a report: The companies were responding to questions from Rosenworcel prompted by news reports that location data originating with America's largest telecoms was being acquired and sold downstream by bounty hunters and others without the consent of the companies themselves or their customers. The New York Times, for instance, reported last year that law enforcement officials had also purchased access to location data, circumvented the usual need for a warrant. On Wednesday, House lawmakers grilled the FCC's chairman, Ajit Pai, for details about the status of the commission's nearly year-long investigation into the malpractice. After two hours, it adjourned with no new information.
In a May 15 letter, AT&T said that as of March 29 it was no longer sharing its customers' data with location aggregators. Sprint said in its letter that it is now only sharing location data with one location aggregator and two customers "with a public interest," a roadside assistance company and another that facilities compliance with state lottery requirements. T-Mobile said that, as of February 8, it had "terminated all service provider access to location data" under its aggregator program, and that, as of March 9, it had terminated all existing aggregator contracts. "Except for four roadside assistance companies," Verizon terminated its location aggregator program as of November 2018, the company said. It added that the four remaining contracts were terminated by the end of March.
In a May 15 letter, AT&T said that as of March 29 it was no longer sharing its customers' data with location aggregators. Sprint said in its letter that it is now only sharing location data with one location aggregator and two customers "with a public interest," a roadside assistance company and another that facilities compliance with state lottery requirements. T-Mobile said that, as of February 8, it had "terminated all service provider access to location data" under its aggregator program, and that, as of March 9, it had terminated all existing aggregator contracts. "Except for four roadside assistance companies," Verizon terminated its location aggregator program as of November 2018, the company said. It added that the four remaining contracts were terminated by the end of March.
Re:Triangulated location? (Score:4, Informative)
They're probably too lazy for that. But knowing which cell tower you are hitting is enough.
Re: (Score:1)
Phone networks know your location more precisely than that. Towers use sector antennas, so they know which direction from the tower you are, there is timing information in the protocol and you are often in range of multiple cell towers.
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Your phone will try to keep a signaling channel connection open to at least the two strongest towers it sees, sometimes more, to facilitate seamless hand off between towers as your phone moves in and out of cell zones.
Your phone and each of these towers knows the relative signal strength of their connection, that with a bit of math can form a very rough measurement of distance.
If you have a map of towers, and you know the environmental conditions for each with a measured maximum distance the signal can actu
Somewhat related (Score:1)
I just booked a vacation 2 days ago and today I'm getting sporadic emails from different companies that clearly indicates at least one of the companies (probably all of them) I booked something with ratted me out. This is why tech is so creepy. And obviously I would never do business with any of these companies soliciting me.
Ah hah (Score:3)
Sure they have. Just like UNlimited is unlimited really.
Re: (Score:3)
The difference between this and "unlimited" is that "unlimited" is a lie, and here, they're admitting they're still selling it. They're just insisting they're only selling it to Good People(TM).
But I don't think they're really supposed to be selling it at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure they have. Just like UNlimited is unlimited really.
It's totally unlimited until you hit the cap. It says so right there on page 73, paragraph 12.2 of your contract!
How is this not stalking? (Score:1)
If an individual took it upon himself to follow you around and record your every movement, every personal association, and every purchase, all with the intent to develop a profile on your private life, he would be charged with stalking.
What makes it different when a large corporation does it?
Mostly (Score:2)
I've (mostly) stopped juggling grenades in crowded theaters.
Re: (Score:2)
Or at least, I've stopped juggling grenades in the specific crowded theater that blew the whistle on me.
And Russian passports were not bulk released (Score:2)
Sure, comrade.
Yes but.... (Score:2)
"representatives of T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon all said they had ceased or significantly curtailed the sale of their customers' location data to companies "
Yes, but who do those companies then resell the data to? And what does "significantly curtailed" mean? Does that mean that they used to sell it to 50 companies and now they're 'only' selling it to 25?
This just seems like a way for T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon to have plausible deniability when that same location data is found bein
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The important thing here is that it doesn't say anything about curtailing the collection of that data. ... What they do with the data right now means very little. The only thing that matters is that they're still collecting the data.
That's a very good point.
They're almost certainly still collecting data (I'd bet on it), and at a later date they may "change their mind*" and decide to sell or transfer it.
Or maybe T-Mobile and Sprint merge, or one buys the other, and voilà, there's all that sweet, sweet data waiting to be monetized.
.
* "changed their mind" AKA "we lied when we said we were never going to do that again".
They stopped selling it. (Score:1)
They are now licensing it.
Actually, they never sold any data (Score:2)
...only conspiracy theorists would think like that.
Prove it. (Score:3)
A company will share anything that allows them to make money, unless there is some economic reason that the company is better off holding the data private. For example, there is pretty strong evidence that Apple sells and shares user data MUCH less than the others. It's part of what you get when you pay the premium for Apple products. Their premium sales model would suffer if they failed to distinguish themselves on this front. Google and Facebook? They're bottom-line commodity services and will sell anything for a buck. Cambridge-Analytica-type events are going to happen over, and over, and over again, unless it's made explicitly illegal at the federal level and enforced with prison sentences.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not really angry about any of this. This is capitalism at work. Data is valuable and thus will be bought, traded for, and sometimes stolen. We designed this system, and it works pretty darn well. But please, let's be honest about what's happening.
The safest bet is to assume that EVERYTHING is shared. You do a search or watch a video on one platform with ALL the privacy boxes checked, and 10 minutes later you'll be getting creepy targeted adds on a totally unrelated platform. Your internet activity is bought and sold in real-time. "Private mode" is an illusion. The internet is NOT private. Don't kid yourself that it ever was. Or ever will be.
Re: (Score:2)
"5) Use a dumbphone instead of a smartphone."
This has no effect on the data they are selling. Even before the analogue network was shut down, it was trivial to find the location of a cell phone. Now, it's easier and more accurate. The minute you register with the network by turning on any device it's simple to locate, even if the device isn't subscribed.
We've been using RDF since WWII, our wireless communication network is now designed to know location of devices.
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This is capitalism at work.
Do you really think any non-capitalist system would be less interested in this data? Are you really that dumb?
Not saying you're wrong, you're just way, way too narrow minded.
Stop voting for politicians who take PAC money (Score:1)
And one more thing (Score:1)
"compliance with state lottery requirements" (Score:3)
the mostly come out at night. (Score:1)
They are selling it themselves (Score:3)