FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data • Hacker News Board

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#21

Post by jjtheblunt » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:46 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #20

jjtheblunt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean 100x? (Still might be ignorable)

That would decrease their EPS by like 50%, investors would probably care which means the company wouldn't ignore it IMO

would be hard to consider it an operating expense for sure

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#22

Post by mysteria » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:46 PM UTC

The bigger question is whether the fine was less than the amount they made selling the location data.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#23

Post by kstrauser » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:47 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #15

kstrauser wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The total fine seems to be $200M, so maybe a buck a person. That’s still a whole lot more than their previous fine of $0.00 for it. Now we have a precedent.

A precedent that selling out your users gets you a slap on the wrist

Alternatively, a precedent that the FCC can and will actually fine someone for breaking the law. The leap from $0 to $200M is much larger than the step from $200M to real fines.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#24

Post by ldjkfkdsjnv » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:47 PM UTC

I used to work for a hedge fund that bought data for 125 million americans a month, all of their mobile phone pings. All sorts of deep learning algorithms analyze shopping, warehouse, and other foot traffic. People have no idea the level of understanding some private investors have. It goes far beyond anything you see in public numbers. Some of the smartest people on the planet, teasing out wild facts about daily habits of americans. Every statistical algorithm known to man has been run on this data

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#25

Post by beretguy » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:47 PM UTC

tithe wrote: post #18

uptown wrote: post #9

Sprint - $12 million fine (In 2019, Sprint Corporation's revenue amounted to 33.6 billion U.S. dollars) T-Mobile – $80 million fine (T-Mobile US annual revenue for 2021 was $80.118B) AT&T - $57 million fine (AT&T revenue for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $122.317B) Verizon - $47 million fine (Verizon annual revenue for 2023 was $133.974B)

Sprint - 0.0003 of revenue T-Mobile - 0.0009 of revenue AT&T - 0.0004 of revenue Verizon - 0.0003 of revenue

That’s like fining me $1 if I did my math right.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#26

Post by bluGill » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:48 PM UTC

moshun wrote: post #13

This was not a fine. It was a below the line operating cost.

It was a first time warning. If they don't reform they can get hit with repeated fines that are larger.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#27

Post by issafram » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:49 PM UTC

Drop in an ocean. Should've done 5% of annual revenue. That would send a much bigger message.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#28

Post by pahkah » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:49 PM UTC

tithe wrote: post #18

uptown wrote: post #9

Sprint - $12 million fine (In 2019, Sprint Corporation's revenue amounted to 33.6 billion U.S. dollars) T-Mobile – $80 million fine (T-Mobile US annual revenue for 2021 was $80.118B) AT&T - $57 million fine (AT&T revenue for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $122.317B) Verizon - $47 million fine (Verizon annual revenue for 2023 was $133.974B)

Sprint - 0.0003 of revenue T-Mobile - 0.0009 of revenue AT&T - 0.0004 of revenue Verizon - 0.0003 of revenue

I appreciate the point, but the numbers there are the proportion of revenue, not the percentage of revenue, so they're off by a factor of 100.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#29

Post by bluGill » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:49 PM UTC

rc_mob wrote: post #19

kstrauser wrote: post #3

Right on! I’m happy to see the FCC on a roll lately. Keep it up!

[flagged]

> I'll be honest, a Republican president would never have give us this win.

The announcement makes it clear that a republican president started the investigation and in turn had a clear contribution to this.

Re: FCC fines largest wireless carriers for sharing location data

#30

Post by beretguy » Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 7:50 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #6

xchip wrote: post #2

How much is the cost per user? Maybe it is not that much in the end (as usual)

The total fine seems to be $200M, so maybe a buck a person. That’s still a whole lot more than their previous fine of $0.00 for it. Now we have a precedent.

So, we improved from fining $0 to $1.