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

Post by vageli » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 2:50 AM UTC

Reelin wrote: post #62

dd36 wrote: post #12

Toothless fines. Indict corporate officers or employees that did it... then you’ll get change.

Unless they knowingly and intentionally broke criminal law, that's completely over the top and unnecessary. Fines should presumably start small and have a graduated structure to prevent the "just a business expense" approach from becoming a viable one. The current regulatory problems are due almost entirely (IMO) to lack of active enforcement; why care what the penalty is if you know it won't happen to you regardless…

Post by borgel » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 2:51 AM UTC

taurath wrote: post #78

stock_toaster wrote: post #49

Presumably this only happened because the : > lawmakers in November accused[1] the FCC of failing to protect consumers’ privacy, and said that major wireless carriers were disclosing real-time location to data compilers without consumers’ consent or knowledge. The information could be obtained by companies including bounty hunters, the lawmakers said in a letter. > [1]: https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrat…

> The FCC really has become just a lobbying goat under Pai. Yikes. Who could’ve predicted that, given he was a lobbyist for Verizon.

Post by vageli » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 2:54 AM UTC

ta999999171 wrote: post #58

jagged-chisel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a huge difference. The technical difference is that law enforcement is doing an end-run around the carrier to have phones just give up information. Carriers have zero control over that.

Sure they do! (Assuming you're not kidding.) Make the cell connections a secure protocol, instead of something any asshole with an antenna can spoof & create a portable "cell tower".

Post by novok » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 2:59 AM UTC

vageli wrote: post #91

Reelin wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they knowingly and intentionally broke criminal law, that's completely over the top and unnecessary. Fines should presumably start small and have a graduated structure to prevent the "just a business expense" approach from becoming a viable one. The current regulatory problems are due almost entirely (IMO) to lack of active enforcement; why care what the penalty is if you know it won't happen to you regardless…

> Unless they knowingly and intentionally broke criminal law, that's completely over the top and unnecessary. Why? If I drive drunk and a cop pulls me over, lack of knowledge is no defense. As the head of a company, why is a lack of knowledge of the goings-on of the company a defense? If you don't know the goings-on when you are in a position to, at the very least that should be categorized as criminally negligent.

Post by dehrmann » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 3:03 AM UTC

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.