The Federal Communications Commission is pushing several mobile carriers for information about how they collect geolocation data.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to 15 of the top mobile providers Tuesday asking for insights into their location data collection practices. This information is requested as lawmakers have raised their fear that location data could be used to identify women who have sought abortions by law enforcement in states that have restricted access to abortion.
The letters ask the carriers “about their policies around geolocation data, such as how long geolocation data is retained and why and what the current safeguards are to protect this sensitive information,” the FCC said in its announcement. The letter also requested details about data retention policies, how those policies are disclosed to users, and where the data are stored.
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“Mobile Internet service providers are uniquely situated to capture a trove of data about their own subscribers, including the subscriber’s actual identity and personal characteristics, geolocation data, app usage, and web browsing data and habits,” the FCC said.
The letter notes that the FCC had proposed fines of $208 million after AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon were caught “selling access to their customers’ location information without taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to that information.” The data gathered by these internet service providers were identified as A-GPS and are far more accurate than other sources of location data because they’re meant to empower first responders to locate a subject expediently when the person is in danger.
While the companies claim they ended the sale of said data, Rosenworcel noted a 2021 Federal Trade Commission report on how mobile internet service providers “collect more data than is necessary to provide services and more data than consumers expect.”
Rosenworcel sent the letters to the three major providers, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Verizon, the cable companies Comcast and Charter, and several other smaller mobile operators such as Consumer Cellular, H20 Wireless, and U.S. Cellular.
Privacy advocates praised Rosenworcel’s decision. “In light of the long history of abuses by carriers selling this kind of detailed and hyper-accurate information to law enforcement, bounty hunters, and even stalkers, Chairwoman Rosenworcel is to be praised for conducting this inquiry,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president at Public Knowledge, in a statement.
However, legislation being considered may be a barrier to the agency’s operation. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which the House Commerce Committee approved Wednesday, would give the FTC primary authority over matters involving data privacy. This would diminish the FCC’s ability to act on its investigation into geolocation data and limit the ability of service providers to share location data.
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Rosenworcel has also advocated the incorporation of broadband consumer labels that would allow users to compare security policies and services across service providers properly in a simple and easy-to-read format.
Location data security has become a notable concern among privacy advocates. Big Tech companies such as Google and Apple have been scrutinized for their collection of location data and the potential threat of state governments seeking to prosecute women who may have sought an abortion with said data.
Federal agencies have also been acquiring data despite being barred from it by the Supreme Court. The Department of Homeland Security has regularly purchased data sets to track users, according to documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
