Senators Call On FCC To Investigate Carriers Selling Location Data To Bounty Hunters (vice.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: On Tuesday, Motherboard revealed that major American telcos T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint are selling customer location data of users in an unregulated market that trickles down to bounty hunters and people not authorized to handle such information. In our investigation, we purchased the real-time location of a cell phone from a bail industry source for $300, pinpointing it to a specific part of Queens, New York. The issue potentially impacts hundreds of millions of cell phone users in the United States, with customers likely unaware that their location data is being sold and resold through multiple companies, with even the telcos sometimes having little idea where it ends up and how it is used.
Now, Senators and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have urged government bodies to investigate, with some calling for regulation that would ensure customers are properly made aware of how their data is being sold. "The American people have an absolute right to the privacy of their data, which is why I'm extraordinarily troubled by reports of this system of repackaging and reselling location data to unregulated third party services for potentially nefarious purposes. If true, this practice represents a legitimate threat to our personal and national security," Senator Kamala Harris told Motherboard in a statement. Harris explicitly called on the FCC to investigate the issue. "The FCC needs to immediately investigate these serious security concerns and take the necessary steps to protect the privacy of American consumers," she said. On Tuesday, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted: "The FCC needs to investigate. Stat."
"It shouldn't be that you pay a few hundred dollars to a bounty hunter and then they can tell you in real time where a phone is within a few hundred meters. That's not right. This entire ecosystem needs some oversight," she added on MSNBC's Velshi & Ruhle show on Wednesday. "I think we've got to get to this fast."
Senators Mark Warner and Ron Wyden are also calling on the FCC to act.
Now, Senators and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have urged government bodies to investigate, with some calling for regulation that would ensure customers are properly made aware of how their data is being sold. "The American people have an absolute right to the privacy of their data, which is why I'm extraordinarily troubled by reports of this system of repackaging and reselling location data to unregulated third party services for potentially nefarious purposes. If true, this practice represents a legitimate threat to our personal and national security," Senator Kamala Harris told Motherboard in a statement. Harris explicitly called on the FCC to investigate the issue. "The FCC needs to immediately investigate these serious security concerns and take the necessary steps to protect the privacy of American consumers," she said. On Tuesday, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted: "The FCC needs to investigate. Stat."
"It shouldn't be that you pay a few hundred dollars to a bounty hunter and then they can tell you in real time where a phone is within a few hundred meters. That's not right. This entire ecosystem needs some oversight," she added on MSNBC's Velshi & Ruhle show on Wednesday. "I think we've got to get to this fast."
Senators Mark Warner and Ron Wyden are also calling on the FCC to act.
yeah..... (Score:3)
Not authorized. That's rich. How 'bout my 3 friends, Benjamin, Benny, and Ben? They authorized?
Re:yeah..... (Score:4)
Poor senators anyway, authorized or not, this has been available on the Internet for ages!
See here:
https://www.trackapartner.com/ [trackapartner.com]
all you need is an 4 hour class. (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
FCC is shut down to prevent border security measures from being built.
NO. Shut down to prevent billions spent on a made up distraction issue to placate red hat wearing morons.
A budget was passed last year by both houses and both parties in Congress. Trump agreed to it.
Then, some losers on Fox News - a network of nothing but opinions lacking facts - said Trump is being weak for not demanding funding for a wall his promised would be paid for by the Mexicans.
So he then reneged on the deal - big surprise!
The Democrats, tired of being the jerks, said too bad! Let's do our origin
Re: (Score:3)
Well, since the Mexico paying for it part didn't pan out, we're half way there. The Wall part won't pan out either and we can get on with spending the money for something that might actually work.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the Democrats need to cast the Republicans' motives into sharp relief.
Propose a bill that gives $50B to fully fund construction of the wall, but conditioned upon full amnesty for all immigrants currently in the country illegally, including amnesty for all crimes that either would not have been crimes or would not have been necessary had they been admitted to the country legally (lying on government forms, using someone else's SSN, etc.).
If the Republicans really are doing this because of security, t
Re: (Score:2)
We already get fewer than 80k illegal immigrants successfully passing across 1,954 miles of border each year. So in each mile of border, about one person goes across every week or two. If you really call that a flood, then I think we've just found the low-information voter.
And if you think that they benefit the Democrats in any meaningful way, you're even more low-information. At that rate, illegal immigrants increase the population of our country by only about two and a half hundredths of one percent p
Re:Too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the FCC is shut down due to a temper tantrum. President man baby needs his ego stroked to the tune of 5 billion dollars and he's willing to hold the federal government hostage to get it.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It's also what the whole mess looks like to the rest of the world. Seriously, the US look more and more like they put Donald Duck in command of the Titanic.
Trump is like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum because he doesn't get the toy he wanted. What this buffoon needs is a good spanking.
Re: (Score:2)
So the ridiculous bullshit is off the table and they now actually have a border security idea that could work?
ehhh (Score:3)
But where's the upset about government agencies (e.g. police) using Stingrays to intercept cell phone calls? Which, BTW, is already illegal (but ignored) since they transmit on licensed frequencies.
Re: (Score:2)
If you want them to prevent rather than enable the mis-use of private info, you're going to have to wait for a different president and a consequently better FCC.
Simple law (Score:3)
Companies must get express permission, revocable at any time to sell any data obtained from a paying client.
You want to sell my data? You can't charge me a penny. Because that penny establishes a legal responsibility to protect my privacy.
Re:Simple law (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies must get express permission, revocable at any time to sell any data obtained from a paying client.
Then express permission will become a requirement for service, and revoking that permission will cancel the service,
You arent offering a solution. All you are doing is increasing government power and therefore all the increased corruption that goes hand-in-hand with increasing government power will be on your hands.
If you want your future complaints to fall on deaf ears, you are off to a good start.
Re: (Score:2)
So we're suppose to get bent out of shape because bounty hunters are using people's location data to catch people who have jumped bail? Do you even know what bounty hunters do? They go after people who have borrowed money to post bail and then don't show up for their court date.
Typically this results in the bail bondsman losing the money they put up. But don't be fooled, no bail bondsman loans money without collateral. Usually this is the accused house, or their parent's house. Or the business of the frien
Re: (Score:1)
Meantime, in the old world, individual privacy is valued and protected. Corporations are not omnipotent.
This shows WHY regulation is needed and SHOULD be in place.
Re: Simple law (Score:2)
I see you're building in a loophole for Google, Facebook, etc. If you use a free service, they can sell any data they can gather on you. Next step, all cellular connections are free of charge, but if you want voice, sms or data, that costs money. Your location is collected as part of you connecting to the base station, which is a free service, therefore your location is not protected. Y the simple law you just proposed.
Well bail bonds is shutting down in CA later this (Score:2)
Well bail bonds is shutting down in CA later this year so this may be moot.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I'm interested to see how that works.
Will it result in a larger number of defendants being held in pre-trial detention or will it result in an explosion of defendants just not showing up to court? Or both?
It's an interesting experiment and a great reason for why the U.S. needs to stay a collection of sovereign states that can do things their own way.
I personally think it will be a disaster. Particularly for poor and minority defendants. I hope I'm wrong.
We'll see though.
Re: (Score:3)
Washington D.C. did it a couple of decades ago, and they haven't reversed that decision, so I guess at the very least, it wasn't enough of a disaster to bother fixing.
If Congress wasn't already bought and paid for (Score:3)
by telecoms, the Headline would read:
Senators Call On FCC To Investigate Carriers Selling Location Data
Re: (Score:2)
senators: "we want more money"
Just working on building their war chests for 2020...
Re: (Score:2)
Well, according to many they like it this way because they get to at least vote for the person that betrays them.
Don't mind me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Ahhh, the EULA (Score:2)
Got people looking for you? (Score:2)
Find work that pays cash in another part of the USA and stay away from all CCTV.
Bounty Hunter Source (Score:2)
I know that P.I.s sometimes hire hackers to infiltrate systems to get dirt on their suspects. I have a feeling this bounty hunter simply bribed a low-level worker at whichever phone company to hand over data they have access to but are technically not allowed to look at without good reason, much less give away. This might be less "phone companies selling access" and more "corrupt employee bribed to give away data" which is at least as old of a problem as the Battle of Thermopylae.
Re: (Score:2)
Bounty hunters are not the most upright of citizens and well, lets be honest, organised crime has it hooks into many of those companies. So basically they are no selling perfect information for hitmen to track people down at a moments notice and find the best location to kill them. Unbelievable that corporations are selling this information, that should require a warrant. Insane psychopathic greed on full display.
Privacy in the USA? (Score:1, Funny)
Informed? (Score:2)
These companies combine to form a virtual monopoly. A law that requires them to inform or any major industry to today to simply inform is just pissing in the wind. The practice needs outlawed and users data needs to be ruled their own property.