Difference between revisions of "Telecom Companies Sell Location Data"
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{{Event | {{Event | ||
|Short Title=Telecom Companies Sell Real-Time Location Data of Phones To Third Parties | |Short Title=Telecom Companies Sell Real-Time Location Data of Phones To Third Parties | ||
| − | |Location= | + | |Location=United States |
| + | |Date=January 2019 | ||
| + | |Taxonomy=Secondary Use, Surveillance, Disclosure | ||
| + | |Personal Information=Location, Computer Device | ||
| + | |Threat Actors=Telecom companies | ||
| + | |Affected Individuals=Mobile phones users | ||
| + | |Summary=Telecom companies are selling access to their customers’ location data to not authorized third parties, such as bounty hunters. | ||
| + | |Description=Mobile phones are constantly communicating with nearby cell phone towers, so the telecom providers know where to route calls and texts. From this, telecom companies also work out the phone’s approximate location based on its proximity to those towers. Constant collection of that data can be seen as [[Surveillance]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Although many users are unaware of it, telecom companies in the United States, such as T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T sell access to their customers’ location data to other companies, called location aggregators, who then sell it to specific clients and industries. <sup>[[Disclosure]]</sup><sup>[[Secondary Use]]</sup> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Media reported on cases, when bounty hunters were able to find current location of the phone just for a few hundred dollars, without deploying a hacking tool to having any previous knowledge of the phone’s whereabouts. | ||
| + | |Sources=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile, | ||
| + | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/foursquare-privacy-internet.html | ||
}} | }} | ||
Revision as of 16:05, 13 June 2020
| Telecom Companies Sell Location Data | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Telecom Companies Sell Real-Time Location Data of Phones To Third Parties |
| Location | United States |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Solove Harm | Secondary Use, Surveillance, Disclosure |
| Information | Location, Computer Device |
| Threat Actors | Telecom companies |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Mobile phones users |
| High Risk Groups | |
| Tangible Harms | |
Telecom companies are selling access to their customers’ location data to not authorized third parties, such as bounty hunters.
Description
Mobile phones are constantly communicating with nearby cell phone towers, so the telecom providers know where to route calls and texts. From this, telecom companies also work out the phone’s approximate location based on its proximity to those towers. Constant collection of that data can be seen as Surveillance.
Although many users are unaware of it, telecom companies in the United States, such as T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T sell access to their customers’ location data to other companies, called location aggregators, who then sell it to specific clients and industries. DisclosureSecondary Use
Media reported on cases, when bounty hunters were able to find current location of the phone just for a few hundred dollars, without deploying a hacking tool to having any previous knowledge of the phone’s whereabouts.
Laws and Regulations
Sources
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/foursquare-privacy-internet.html