Refunds For 300 Million Phone Users Sought In Lawsuits Over Location-Data Sales (arstechnica.com) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The four major U.S. wireless carriers are facing proposed class-action lawsuits accusing them of violating federal law by selling their customers' real-time location data to third parties. The complaints seeking class action status and financial damages were filed last week against AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The four suits, filed on behalf of customers by lawyers from the Z Law firm in Maryland, all begin with text nearly identical to this intro found in the suit against AT&T: "This action arises out of Defendant's collection of geolocation data and the unauthorized dissemination to third-parties of the geolocation data collected from its users' cell phones. AT&T admittedly sells customer geolocation data to third-parties, including but not limited to data aggregators, who in turn, are able to use or resell the geolocation data with little or no oversight by AT&T. This is an action seeking damages for AT&T gross failure to safeguard highly personal and private consumer geolocation data in violation of federal law."
The proposed classes would include all of the four carriers' customers in the U.S. between 2015 and 2019. In all, that would be 300 million or more customers, as the lawsuits say the proposed classes consist of at least 100 million customers each for AT&T and Verizon and at least 50 million each for Sprint and T-Mobile. Each lawsuit seeks damages for consumers "in an amount to be proven at trial." In June 2018, the four major U.S. carriers promised to stop selling their mobile customers' location info to third-party data brokers after a security problem leaked the real-time location of U.S. cellphone users. Despite the carriers' promises, a Motherboard investigation found in January 2019 that they were still selling access to their customers' location data.
"The lawsuits accuse the carriers of violating Section 222 of the U.S. Communications Act, which says that carriers may not use or disclose location information 'without the express prior authorization of the customer,'" reports Ars Technica. "The lawsuits also say that each carrier failed to follow its own privacy policy and 'profited from the sale and unauthorized dissemination of Plaintiff and Class Members' [private data].'"
The proposed classes would include all of the four carriers' customers in the U.S. between 2015 and 2019. In all, that would be 300 million or more customers, as the lawsuits say the proposed classes consist of at least 100 million customers each for AT&T and Verizon and at least 50 million each for Sprint and T-Mobile. Each lawsuit seeks damages for consumers "in an amount to be proven at trial." In June 2018, the four major U.S. carriers promised to stop selling their mobile customers' location info to third-party data brokers after a security problem leaked the real-time location of U.S. cellphone users. Despite the carriers' promises, a Motherboard investigation found in January 2019 that they were still selling access to their customers' location data.
"The lawsuits accuse the carriers of violating Section 222 of the U.S. Communications Act, which says that carriers may not use or disclose location information 'without the express prior authorization of the customer,'" reports Ars Technica. "The lawsuits also say that each carrier failed to follow its own privacy policy and 'profited from the sale and unauthorized dissemination of Plaintiff and Class Members' [private data].'"
Like Every Class Action Suit (Score:5, Insightful)
What will be the payout? $0.50 a person?
How much did they really make off us? Triple that, and make them pay every penny back to the consumers, then slap them with legal fees on top.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It will be a 5% discount on the purchase price of a new phone, claimable only by rebate that requires you to fill out three pages worth of personal data.
Re:Like Every Class Action Suit (Score:4, Interesting)
I got $36 and some change from a class action against a company that was making illegal collection calls.
All I had to do was mail in a postcard.
This could be much bigger. That one was smaller because it was a smaller company being sued.
The reason a lot of class action lawsuits have small cash payouts is that the liability is incomplete, and the purpose of the lawsuit is to get them to agree to changes. Here, they're simply violating the law, and the changes desired only amount to following the law, so they can't lower the payout by agreeing to terms. And their liability is much clearer, assuming the accusations get proven successfully.
This could end up being really huge, and involve real money refunds.
Just Kidding (Score:2)
Time to start up that service to fill out postcards for people automatically. Charge $5 a pop...
Not everyone will will want to do the minimal work to get some money out of this. That means there's an opportunity to take a cut of that. Like that guy who set up the lawsuit generator.
I think I'll set it up so they can fill it in using their Facebook profile. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
The obligatory kneejerk response to class action s (Score:2)
oh, boy.. (Score:1)
i can't wait for my $0.37 credit for 12 months and coupon for $100 off a $1000 smartphone (with contract).
The law is clear, carriers fucked. Their response? (Score:3)
After reading the statute, I'm looking forward to reading the answer filed by each carrier. The law and the facts seem to be rather clear.
The public statements by the carriers so far suggest their defense is " we sold it to a wholesaler and just assumed they would only sell it for those few types of cases in which it would have been legal for us to sell it". That's not going to fly. The law is the carriers can only release the information for A, B, and C, and no other purpose. "Selling it to a reseller" is not one of the allowed uses.
Re: (Score:1)
They don't just sell real-time location, they also sell real-time sensor data, e.g. accelerometers. Why spam call someone whose phone is laying on a table in another room?
And this will go nowhere... (Score:4, Interesting)
Every one of them has mandatory binding arbitration clauses that disallow class arbitration. Nothing will come of this.
Re: (Score:3)
I can seen an argument for an arbitration clause being coercive if a company has a de facto monopoly (e.g. cable companies). But if there's competition and all the competitors have independently chosen to have an a
Re:And this will go nowhere... (Score:5, Informative)
Corporate policies, even if enshrined into a contract, do not override federal law.
"The lawsuits accuse the carriers of violating Section 222 of the U.S. Communications Act..."
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, so while the government prosecutor can't be forced into binding arbitration anyone attempting to claim damages through a civil suit can be.
Good point. Direct TV v. Imburgia, ATT v Concepcio (Score:2)
Good point. Two recent cases had similar facts:
Direct TV v. Imburgia, 2015
AA&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011)
These cases held the Federal Arbitration Act gives full force to the class waivers - you can't do a class action if the contract you agreed to says so.
I'm going to re-read the complaint to see if plaintiffs address that issue.
It may be relevant that the defendants' conduct is explicitly illegal by statute - this isn't a negligence or causation issue.
Oh Boy! (Score:2)
I look forward to my $5 off coupon that's only good on the $1,980 Samsung Galaxy Fold.
Re: (Score:3)
Don't forget to enjoy your new $5/month "Federal Services Recovery Fee" on your subsequent bills, too!
A Fitting Recourse - No more location data at all (Score:2)
Force the carriers, who obviously don't follow the law (on purpose, their intent was to break the law), to no longer for any reason whatsoever track location data.
Any location data they provide, not acceptable in court.
Get caught passing location data. That's $1,000,000,000 thank you (per incident, they can afford it to a point). Try not to do it again.
Law enforcement has their own tools for tracking with proper warrants. Let that be the only path.
Pipe dream..