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

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 166 posts

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

#21

But Facebook, Google, Microsoft, et al are still free to sell phone location data acquired through apps (or Android itself in the case of Google), right? I wonder if there is any hope of laws to limit the ability of companies to sell this data...

Telcos are regulated carriers, facegoog are not. Maybe one day they will be.

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

#22

But Facebook, Google, Microsoft, et al are still free to sell phone location data acquired through apps (or Android itself in the case of Google), right? I wonder if there is any hope of laws to limit the ability of companies to sell this data...

It's time to differentiate selling "Bob is in Location X" from "Show this ad to all people at location X".

The first case is a far far bigger privacy concern to me, and seems to be what mobile networks were doing. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are doing the latter.

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

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that obtaining phone location data requires a warrant. [1] So no, neither one is okay. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_v._United_States

So this Supreme Court ruling has eliminated all use of Stingray-like equipment by all law enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant? Wow! Looks like Harris will be going of business soon, and no more DRT boxes flying over cities?

How did you get from “mobile company providing location data” to “law enforcement use of stingrays to obtain location data”?

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

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that obtaining phone location data requires a warrant. [1] So no, neither one is okay. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_v._United_States

So this Supreme Court ruling has eliminated all use of Stingray-like equipment by all law enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant? Wow! Looks like Harris will be going of business soon, and no more DRT boxes flying over cities?

Obtaining phone location data is different than a stingray. Not saying it is ok, just totally different.

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

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that obtaining phone location data requires a warrant. [1] So no, neither one is okay. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_v._United_States

So this Supreme Court ruling has eliminated all use of Stingray-like equipment by all law enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant? Wow! Looks like Harris will be going of business soon, and no more DRT boxes flying over cities?

> The Court did not expand its ruling on other matters related to cellphones not presented in Carpenter, including real-time cell site location information (CSLI) or "tower dumps"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_v._United_States

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

#26

But Facebook, Google, Microsoft, et al are still free to sell phone location data acquired through apps (or Android itself in the case of Google), right? I wonder if there is any hope of laws to limit the ability of companies to sell this data...

IIRC, Google doesn't sell your personal location data: https://safety.google/privacy/ads-and-data/

Disclaimer: I work at Google.

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

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that obtaining phone location data requires a warrant. [1] So no, neither one is okay. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_v._United_States

So this Supreme Court ruling has eliminated all use of Stingray-like equipment by all law enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant? Wow! Looks like Harris will be going of business soon, and no more DRT boxes flying over cities?

Why are you being downvoted for pointing out mass surveillance and extremely targeted surveillance are both still legal and frequently used.

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

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this Supreme Court ruling has eliminated all use of Stingray-like equipment by all law enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant? Wow! Looks like Harris will be going of business soon, and no more DRT boxes flying over cities?

How did you get from “mobile company providing location data” to “law enforcement use of stingrays to obtain location data”?

Not much of a difference really. Mainly just that LE uses their own equipment instead of that of the carrier. This brings up a separate FCC issue: Why is it okay for LE to transmit on the cellular bands for this purpose, when it provably can interfere with emergency communications (such as a 911 call)?

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

#30

So it's okay for the carriers to provide the phone-location (and other metadata) to government entities without a warrant, but it's not okay to sell it commercially? I'd love to see a legal analysis of that argument.

> So it's okay for the carriers to provide the phone-location (and other metadata) to government entities without a warrant...

I don't see where the article addresses that point. While it has some resemblance, seems like a different issue covered by different parts of law.

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