Verizon, AT&T curb location data

Verizon and AT&T have pledged to stop providing information on phone owners’ locations to data brokers, stepping back from a business practice that has drawn criticism for endangering privacy.

The data apparently have enabled outside companies to pinpoint the location of wireless devices without the device owners’ knowledge or consent. Verizon said that about 75 companies have been obtaining its customer data from two little-known California-based brokers that Verizon supplies directly: LocationSmart and Zumigo.

Verizon became the first major carrier to declare it would end sales of such data to brokers that provide it to others. It did so in a Friday letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has been investigating the phone location-tracking market. AT&T followed suit Tuesday after the Associated Press reported the Verizon move.

Neither company said it is getting out of the business of selling location data.

Verizon’s chief privacy officer, Karen Zacharia, said her company would be careful not to disrupt “beneficial services” such as fraud prevention and emergency roadside assistance. AT&T spokesman Jim Greer cited similar reasons for cutting off the intermediaries “as soon as practical.”

Last month, Wyden revealed abuses in the lucrative but loosely regulated field involving Securus Technologies and its affiliate 3C Interactive. Verizon says its contract was approved only for the location tracking of outside mobile phones called by prison inmates.

Verizon and AT&T are the two largest U.S. mobile carriers in terms of subscribers.

Location data from carriers make it possible to identify the whereabouts of nearly any phone in the United States within seconds. Popular commercial uses include emergency roadside assistance; keeping tabs on packages, vehicles and employees; bank fraud prevention and targeted marketing offers.