AT&T Says Selling Location Data is Technically Legal In Public Letter

The FCC has been warning the four major carriers to stop selling location data. Verizon has terminated with most of his partners, except for four companies in relations to roadside safety before terminating with them earlier this year. Sprint and T-Mobile are ‘accelerating’ their phase-out.

Meanwhile, AT&T, although saying the same thing, reminds that it is not illegal and said that the media’s report regarding A-GPS restrictions has been ‘inaccurate and misplaced’. AT&T along with three other public letters regarding their defends against the accusation can be downloaded here.

The FCC investigation against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile is based on suspected illegal trading of consumers’ GPS location services. What makes this serious is that the companies might have been trading NEAD (National Emergency Address Database) which should never be traded for commercial purposes.

FCC has made all more carrier companies commit into phasing out of such practices since June 2018.

Verizon has declared themselves clear from any practices of allowing access to their subscribers’ locations to third parties. The other three are accelerating their phase-out to be clear of location information disclosure. The same thing can be said of T-Mobile.

Sprint promises that they will terminate contracts with his last two customers, one of which is a roadside assistance, by May 31, 2019. AT&T has declared itself free of such activities since March 29, 2019.