CaptionCall Fined $35M for Telecom Relay Service Data Privacy Violations

CaptionCall will pay a nearly $35 million fine and implement a compliance plan following an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation about data privacy for consumers with disabilities, according to a consent decree Tuesday. The bureau found that the company unlawfully retained call content beyond the duration of a call and submitted inaccurate information to the Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator. The investigation found that CaptionCall retained some call content of TRS users for three years before the issue was discovered. TRS providers must "take additional precautions given their unique access to the content of their customers' calls," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.