House Commerce Leaders Write Carrier CEOs on Data Collection; Sprint Ends Some Deals

The heads of House Commerce panels want the big four wireless carriers and other CEOs to describe location sharing deals, which have drawn scrutiny in recent days as some operators end the practice. Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio; Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., requested information from T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon and aggregators Zumigo and Microbilt. "This practice of selling and sharing of location information through multiple entities potentially impacts hundreds of millions of American customers," they wrote the companies Wednesday. "We are deeply troubled because it is not the first time we have received reports and information about the sharing of mobile users’ location information involving a number of parties who may have misused personally identifiable information.” Legislators want answers to several questions by Jan. 30. Like AT&T and Verizon, Sprint will end location data-sharing agreements (see 1901110042) with third parties, including deals companies consider beneficial to customers like roadside assistance, a spokesperson emailed Wednesday. Sprint ended deals with data aggregators last year but maintained arrangements impacting things like roadside assistance and bank fraud, the spokesperson said: “We implemented new, more stringent safeguards to help protect customer location data, but as a result of recent events, we have decided to end our arrangements with data aggregators.” The FCC didn’t comment. AT&T cited a previous statement about ending such agreements, and the others didn't comment.