The
move comes after a customer (of a customer) of a company that buys
real-time location details shared people's data without their
permission.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: On Tuesday, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint said they'd stop working with two data brokers, LocationSmart and Zumigo. Shortly after that, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted that the company won't sell customers' location information to "shady middlemen."
The background: In May, The New York Times reported that Securus Technologies, a prison call-monitoring company, offered a service that law-enforcement officials could use to track people's locations, without having a court order. That's a big no-no. The data Securus used reportedly came from another company, 3Cinteractive, which snagged it from LocationSmart.
What now? The carriers won't necessarily end their deals with these companies immediately; AT&T, for instance, said it will do so "as soon as practical" while keeping up services such as emergency roadside assistance.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: On Tuesday, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint said they'd stop working with two data brokers, LocationSmart and Zumigo. Shortly after that, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted that the company won't sell customers' location information to "shady middlemen."
The background: In May, The New York Times reported that Securus Technologies, a prison call-monitoring company, offered a service that law-enforcement officials could use to track people's locations, without having a court order. That's a big no-no. The data Securus used reportedly came from another company, 3Cinteractive, which snagged it from LocationSmart.
What now? The carriers won't necessarily end their deals with these companies immediately; AT&T, for instance, said it will do so "as soon as practical" while keeping up services such as emergency roadside assistance.
—Rachel Metz
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