Major Phone Providers to Stop Selling Your Location

Data brokers have been accessing phone location services for as long as cell phones have had location tracking. However, in the our modern, breach-sensitive era, such actions make customers understandably upset. Recently, a company called Securus was revealed to be offering a service to law enforcement that allowed them to track the live location of cellphone users. Securus depends upon information from LocationSmart, a data aggregator. Securus actions fell under scrutiny from Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who called on the major phone providers to cut LocationSmart off. 

Responses from Phone Providers 

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have all made statements of varying intensity that they planned to cut off data brokers like LocationSmart. As the FCC investigates the Securus situation, the major phone providers are looking to distance themselves from the situation. Securus, notably, requires nothing more than a vague “court order” (that they don’t check) to access their database. As such, the legality of the service is dubious at best. Law enforcement agencies could easily look up individuals based on their phone and track them without a warrant. This situation is clearly a problem, and the major networks’ attempts to stymie Securus are a step in the right direction. 

Further complicating matters, a recent “bug” in LocationSmart’s system allowed people to access the location of all phones in their database. Senator Wyden called on the major networks to cut these data brokers off and protect their customers. For their part, they have all made moves to do so.  

Verizon has confirmed it is terminating contracts with LocationSmart and ZumiGo, another location broker. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have all also promised that they will stop providing this data to aggregators. Originally, the location services were meant to be used for things like roadside assistance and fraud prevention. However, Securus accessing user locations without customer consent is a major breach of user privacy.  

How Soon Will These Changes Go Into Effect?

The major providers have stated that they won’t be cutting off the location services immediately. According to them, those services offer some positive benefits that they don’t want to interrupt. However, if the cost for small conveniences is the loss of privacy, perhaps those conveniences are unimportant. In any event, Senator Wyden’s actions seem to have brought about a change for the better. The large telecom companies likely either didn’t know or care about this data misuse. Wyden’s public challenge that they should tighten consumer protections moved them to actions, though, and that’s commendable.