FCC Slaps AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint with $200 Million Fine for Illegal Location Data Sharing

The US FCC fined AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint a total of around $200 million for illegally sharing and selling customers' real-time location data without consent. The carriers sold access to customers' location data to "aggregators," who then resold it to other companies, creating a gray market the customers were unaware of. Carriers are required by law to obtain express consent before using and sharing highly sensitive location data. The fines come after past reports found bounty hunters and law enforcement accessed location data through third parties.