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Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

arstechnica.com

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Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#151

Post by toomuchtodo »

thewhitebug wrote: post #148
toomuchtodo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch banks? I have never once had American Express decline a charge domestic or international. Highly recommend!

Opposite position here - American Express was the one card I could not use anywhere in my first European trips 20 years ago (don't know it that's changed) - ditched it forever then. MC and Visa works for me. Never looked back.

20 years is a long time! I suggest you give them another shot. I have their Platinum card and the service has been top notch (although paying for their charge card is not required if you pick a product with no annual fee).

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#152

Post by sizzle »

ghaff wrote: post #143
russdill wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The saddest thing about this is that my bank no longer requires notification for international travel, but still does for travel within the US. I've had my card shut off for fraud a few times while traveling in the US. Once when I had almost no gas and was outside of cell service, thanks for that. This is presumably due to all transactions outside of the US requiring chip, but those in the US only requiring swipe.

Make a point of carrying a spare card from a different bank and maybe a different payment network. In my experience, you’re always going to hit random declines from time to time.

Also some emergency cash up to $100 hidden in the car where only you would know where to look is worth the peace of mind knowing technology is not infallible.

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#153

Post by _8j50 »

URSpider94 wrote: post #127
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a lobbyist even do? I can't even imagine the scene, they go in a politician's office and just start with "ok hear me out" or am I being naive and it just means finding ways to pay them money?

I always assumed there was a lot of talking. Most politicians are inclined to want to help businesses anyway, as they provide jobs and generate tax revenue. If the lobbyist can come in and say “here’s what the cell phone providers nationwide need to stay in business and continue to generate good returns to shareholders and low prices to customers,” then that’s a powerful message - especially when the counter-argument…

The argument to that is communism basically does this and capitalism lets companies do whatever they want as long as they don't harm consumers and play fair

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#154

Post by _8j50 »

adrr wrote: post #70

Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’t require travel notices, they are probably pulling mobile location. Some don’t, I know chase uses mobile app to determine location.

They'll ping your phone? Are you kidding me? You mean they'll look up records right, not a realtime query of device location? How is that legal?

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#155

Post by Naracion »

8note wrote: post #123
toomuchtodo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch banks? I have never once had American Express decline a charge domestic or international. Highly recommend!

carry cash? no one is going to not accept that

Some places don't accept cash to reduce the risk of theft--we don't carry cash, you can't steal from the cash register.

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#156

Post by pintxo »

Teever wrote: post #141
franga2000 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, the US is still on magstripe? Isn't that literally just a bar code? No challenge-response, or encryption? Fraud detection seems like the wrong thing to be focusing on if that's the case...

Yeah, it's even worse than that. I was recently in the bay area and I went to pay for a burger with my Canadian chip&pin card and when I the card in the transaction was automatically approved with no need to enter the pin. This was quite alarming.

Germany here, there is a lower limit, below which we do not have to enter a pin. Maybe the same for you?

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#157

Post by ghaff »

sizzle wrote: post #152
ghaff wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make a point of carrying a spare card from a different bank and maybe a different payment network. In my experience, you’re always going to hit random declines from time to time.

Also some emergency cash up to $100 hidden in the car where only you would know where to look is worth the peace of mind knowing technology is not infallible.

Yes, I was assuming some cash as well. Appropriate currency, dollars in particular most places, is always useful when traveling. But if you’re at a supermarket checkout and your card is randomly declined (has happened to me) it’s nice to be able to pull out another card.

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#158

Post by service_bus »

adrr wrote: post #70

Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’t require travel notices, they are probably pulling mobile location. Some don’t, I know chase uses mobile app to determine location.

I think you're confused. Banks aren't buying location information from carriers.

This has nothing to do with them being able to get your location from their app.

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#159

Post by adrr »

service_bus wrote: post #158
adrr wrote: post #70

Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’t require travel notices, they are probably pulling mobile location. Some don’t, I know chase uses mobile app to determine location.

I think you're confused. Banks aren't buying location information from carriers. This has nothing to do with them being able to get your location from their app.

Some banks get it off the app like Chase. Some don’t and pull E911 location on out of the area auth for a card present transaction.

Re: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment

#160

Post by adrr »

_8j50 wrote: post #154
adrr wrote: post #70

Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’t require travel notices, they are probably pulling mobile location. Some don’t, I know chase uses mobile app to determine location.

They'll ping your phone? Are you kidding me? You mean they'll look up records right, not a realtime query of device location? How is that legal?

E911 location is real-time.
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