EFF Sues AT&T, Bounty Hunters Over Sale of Location Data
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Pierce Bainbridge filed a class-action status-seeking lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers in California to stop the carrier and two data location aggregators “from allowing numerous entities -- including bounty hunters, car dealerships, landlords, and…
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stalkers -- to access wireless customers’ real-time locations without authorization.” The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. “AT&T and data aggregators have systematically violated the location privacy rights of tens of millions of AT&T customers,” said EFF Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey. “Consumers must stand up to protect their privacy and shut down this illegal market.” In May, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to CEOs of the carriers asking what they're doing to make sure real-time location information they collect isn’t being sold to aggregators (see 1905010167). Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also complained about companies selling data (see 1902080056). “The facts don’t support this lawsuit and we will fight it,” an AT&T spokesperson said now. “Location-based services like roadside assistance, fraud protection, and medical device alerts have clear and even life-saving benefits. We only share location data with customer consent. We stopped sharing location data with aggregators after reports of misuse.”