FCC proposes fines for cell carriers that shared user data

NEW YORK — U.S. regulators have proposed fining the four major U.S. phone companies more than $200 million combined for improperly disclosing customers’ real-time location to other companies.

The proposed fines by the Federal Communications Commission amounted to $91 million for T-Mobile, $57 million for AT&T, $48 million for Verizon and $12 million for Sprint.

The amounts vary based on how long each company sold the user data and how many companies and organizations it sold the data to. The phone companies can object, and the amounts could change.

Critics said the FCC took too long, and the proposed fines were too low.

“Instead of meetings its obligation to come down hard on the wireless carriers that are guilty in this case, the FCC dragged its feet and issued penalties that let these companies off easy,” said Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

Lisa Hayes of the advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology said the FCC’s “weak enforcement response” demonstrates why the U.S. needs a comprehensive privacy law.

Location data makes it possible to identify the whereabouts of nearly any phone in the U.S. within seconds.

According to published reports, phone companies were selling access to such data to little-known companies such as Location Smart and Zumigo. These data brokers then sold the information to other “location-based” services, like prison-communications company Securus. The FCC said the phone companies failed to ask customers for consent.