Senator Wyden goes ballistic after US telcos caught selling people’s location data yet again
US Senator Ron Wyden is renewing his calls for legislation banning the sale of people’s private cellphone location information after yet another report that phone carriers were doing exactly that.
The Oregon Democratic Senator says that major telcos and their executives, including T-Mobile US CEO John Legere, directly lied to him last year when they vowed not to allow underhand private dicks, shady bounty hunters, and dodgy geezers to purchase the location information of citizens for tracking purposes.
After I exposed these dangerous practices last year, several carriers, including @tmobile’s CEO @JohnLegere told me point blank that his company would stop selling customer location data to shady third parties. https://t.co/JSASCP2PWH
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 8, 2019
This after a report from Vice’s Motherboard today showed that T-Mob, ATT, and Sprint were still selling customer location data to third-party companies who, in turn, resell it to iffy miscreants. These buyers include bail bonds companies that pass people’s details on to bounty hunters looking to track down folks who have skipped bail, though it seems the data is slipping out to anyone offering cash.
In effect, it is possible for certain shady organizations to buy people’s whereabouts from these info resellers, who obtain the data from the carriers. We’re told the brokers caught by Vice reselling to info to undesirables have now been cut off from the carriers’ info hose.
Verizon promises to stop selling its subscribers’ location data… for now
The sales of location data is not a new thing, sadly. Back in the spring of 2018 it was widely documented how prison companies and private investigators were brokering in the sale of customer location data from major wireless carriers.
This led to calls for new rules that would prohibit companies from selling their user location data to any third party. Among those up in arms was Wyden, who floated legislation to impose legal penalties on carriers that sold customer data. The telcos then looked to get ahead of lawmakers by pledging on their own not to sell tracking data.
With that promise now having been shown to be utter rubbish, Wyden is renewing his calls to pass legislation.
“Major carriers pledged to end these practices, but it appears to have been more empty promises to consumers,” Wyden said. “It’s time for Congress to take action by passing my bill to safeguard consumer data and hold companies accountable.” ®
Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/08/telcos_customer_tracking_sales/