New US Privacy Law May Give Telecoms Free Pass On $200 Million Fines (vice.com) 17
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), a new federal privacy bill that has actually a chance of becoming law, is designed to introduce new privacy protections for Americans. But it may also have the side effect of wiping out $200 million worth of fines proposed against some of the country's biggest telecommunications companies as part of a major location-data selling scandal in which the firms sold customer data that ended up in the hands of bounty hunters and other parties. The issue centers around the ADPPA's shift of enforcement for privacy related matters from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which proposed the fines, to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The news highlights the complex push and pulls when developing privacy legislation, and some of the pitfalls along the way.
The FCC proposed the $200 million fines in February 2020. The fines came after Motherboard revealed that the carriers sold phone location data to a complex supply chain of companies which then provided it to hundreds of bounty hunters and other third parties, including someone that allowed Motherboard to track a phone for just $300. The fines also came after The New York Times and the office of Sen. Ron Wyden found that the carriers sold location data in a similar method to a company called Securus, which allowed law enforcement officials to track the location of phones without a warrant. A former sheriff abused the tool to spy on judges and other officials. The offending telecoms -- AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon -- said they stopped the sale of location data at varying points in time in response to the investigations. The FCC then found that the carriers broke the law by selling such data.
FCC Press Secretary Paloma Perez told Motherboard in an emailed statement that "our real-time location information is some of the most sensitive data there is about us, and it deserves the highest level of privacy protection. That is why the FCC has proposed more than $200 million in fines against the nation's largest wireless carriers for selling their customers' location data. Through our continued oversight we have ensured that these carriers are no longer monetizing their consumers' real-time location in this way, and we are continuing our investigation into these practices and expect to reach a conclusion very soon." In July FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to a host of U.S. telecommunications, tech, and retail companies to ask about their use of location data.
The FCC proposed the $200 million fines in February 2020. The fines came after Motherboard revealed that the carriers sold phone location data to a complex supply chain of companies which then provided it to hundreds of bounty hunters and other third parties, including someone that allowed Motherboard to track a phone for just $300. The fines also came after The New York Times and the office of Sen. Ron Wyden found that the carriers sold location data in a similar method to a company called Securus, which allowed law enforcement officials to track the location of phones without a warrant. A former sheriff abused the tool to spy on judges and other officials. The offending telecoms -- AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon -- said they stopped the sale of location data at varying points in time in response to the investigations. The FCC then found that the carriers broke the law by selling such data.
FCC Press Secretary Paloma Perez told Motherboard in an emailed statement that "our real-time location information is some of the most sensitive data there is about us, and it deserves the highest level of privacy protection. That is why the FCC has proposed more than $200 million in fines against the nation's largest wireless carriers for selling their customers' location data. Through our continued oversight we have ensured that these carriers are no longer monetizing their consumers' real-time location in this way, and we are continuing our investigation into these practices and expect to reach a conclusion very soon." In July FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to a host of U.S. telecommunications, tech, and retail companies to ask about their use of location data.
Not a law, just a bill (Score:4, Informative)
A bill is not a "new law" until after it has been passed.
There is a lot of opposition to this bill by the usual corporate supporters in both chambers of Congress.
This bill has no chance of becoming law. The corporate lobbyists are casting their web as wide as fucking slashvertiserments to gin up opposition, with a weird take about a really tiny side effect.
I mean, just look at what it actually proposes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
We would get like, $2T worth of privacy out of this if it was passed an implemented faithfully. "Oh, noes, the tiny slap on the wrist might slip through the cracks!" We'd have data retention minimalization.
Great bill, not gonna happen though. Stupid article, written for idiots. Stupid summary, written by assholes.
Re: (Score:2)
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Yep. $200 million is a bargain if it buys us any real privacy or protection from these companies.
Great bill? (Score:2)
No private action allowed, and supercedes state laws.
Yup, great bill for business.
Re: (Score:3)
You might look for a second opinion [techdirt.com] on the value of that bill.
First, putting telecom regulation under FTC is no small thing. The FTC is chronically underfunded, and has not had the generations of experience dealing with telecom that the FCC has.
Second, those protections you think are so grand? More loophole than protection. De-identified information? No such thing. [nature.com]
Data minimalization? You're saying that the people who were self-regulating are going to ... self regulate more. Right.
Re: (Score:2)
That's a lot of blah-blah that is based solely in cynicism, and is entirely speculative.
"Gosh, that might not save the world, therefore it is bad."
Lowbrow weak sauce standing in the way of progress.
Criminalize corporate malfeasance... (Score:3)
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$200 Million? (Score:5, Insightful)
Telecom 1: Let's look in the sofa for loose change. That should cover it.
Telecom 2: Wait... It's even cheaper to use our bought and paid for Congresscritters to legislate away any fines!
Telecom 1: Let's DO IT!
The fines would just be a consumer tax anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
Since the fines punish all the telecoms companies they'll all be hurt more-or-less equally and so there will be no competitive disadvantage for any of their wrongdoing. They can all safely pass the costs on to their customers so the $200 million just becomes a tax on consumers. It's not like the executives that approved selling out the data are going to be paying personally.
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Part of the problems with these fines is that they will hurt the smaller Telecoms a lot more that the larger ones which does create a competive disadvantage.
Thinking the Senate will (Score:3)
The bill moves responsibility for privacy from a commission that can impose fines to a commission that can't: Corporatism as usual in the USA.
Those thinking the Senate will oppose this because it gives people rights, might be mistaken.
Year net income 2022-06-30 (Score:4, Informative)
=$42.2 billion for AT&T, T-Mobile US (bought Sprint), and Verizon.
https://www.macrotrends.net/st... [macrotrends.net]
https://www.macrotrends.net/st... [macrotrends.net]
https://www.macrotrends.net/st... [macrotrends.net]
Who slipped this in there? (Score:2)
Who slipped this in there? Who is responsible fro losing the taxpayers $200 million? Fuck them.
$200 million is a rounding error to these firms (Score:1)
It's not close to being any realistic kind of punitive damage, so the loss really isn't much of an issue to getting the bill passed.
Same as Usual, Then? (Score:2)
Big fines that the mainstream news always crows about rarely get paid. They promote them so that we can shake our fist and say "take that!" to our corporate overlords, then when the heat is off and the attention elsewhere, they get drastically scaled down, exchanged for certain actions (like hiring X number of people), or forgiven altogether. That's why you rarely hear about companies PAYING fines.
That's why these companies often just go back and do it again. It doesn't actually cost them what you think