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BUSINESS Wednesday 20 June 2018
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Verizon to end location data sales to brokers

By FRANK BAJAK their ability to access and thorized surveillance of a
Associated Press use our customers' location judge, a sheriff and state
Verizon is pledging to stop data as soon as possible," highway patrol officers.
sales through intermediar- wrote Verizon's chief priva- Days later, a Carnegie
ies of data that pinpoints cy officer, Karen Zacharia. Mellon University secu-
the location of mobile Though Verizon is ending rity researcher discovered
phones to outside compa- sales to brokers, Verizon a security flaw in Loca-
nies, the Associated Press stopped short of ending tionSmart's website that
has learned. the practice completely. could have allowed any
It is the first major U.S. wire- Zacharia said the compa- reasonably sophisticated
less carrier to step back ny would be careful not to hacker to secretly track al-
from a business practice disrupt "beneficial services" most any phone in the U.S.
that has drawn criticism for such as fraud prevention or Canada.
endangering privacy. The and would "work with these Wyden asked the carriers to
data has allowed outsid- aggregators to ensure a identify which third parties
ers to track wireless devices smooth transition for these have been acquiring car-
without their owners' knowl- beneficial services to al- rier location data and to
edge or consent. ternative arrangements so provide details such as any
Verizon, the nation's largest as to minimize the harm to third-party sharing of loca-
mobile carrier measured customers and end users." tion data without customer In this Tuesday, May 2, 2017, file photo, Verizon corporate sig-
by subscribers, said that In the interim, Verizon will consent. His office shared nage is captured on a store in Manhattan's Midtown area, in
about 75 companies have not authorize any new uses the companies' responses New York.
obtained its customer data of the location data, she with The Associated Press. Associated Press
from two little-known Cal- said. Location data from None of the four carriers
ifornia-based brokers that Verizon and other carriers named any third parties, wrong hands. ers immediately responded
it supplies directly — Loca- makes it possible to identify with two exceptions. One "The big concern was that to AP requests for comment
tionSmart and Zumigo. the whereabouts of nearly was Securus, which all four this was probably the tip Tuesday morning. AT&T
The company made its dis- any phone in the U.S. within carriers have since cut off. of the iceberg," said Laura and T-Mobile , No. 2 and 3
closure in a letter to Sen. Ron seconds. The other was 3CInterac- Moy, deputy director of the in customers, said in letters
Wyden, an Oregon Demo- Popular commercial uses tive, the reseller that sup- Georgetown Center on Pri- to Wyden they only allow
crat who has been probing for so-called geolocation plied Securus. Only Verizon vacy and Technology. She authorized third parties to
the phone location-track- tracking include emer- has pledged to end the said Verizon's move "indi- access customer location
ing market. Last month, gency roadside assistance; sale of location data from cates that it cannot actu- data if the affected cus-
Wyden revealed abuses keeping tabs on packages, its 116 million wireless sub- ally police this process, that tomers have given consent
in the lucrative but loosely vehicles and employees; scribers through so-called it doesn't have the ability." or if it is required by law —
regulated field involving bank fraud prevention and "geolocation aggregators. Nor can the other carriers, for instance, a court order.
Securus Technologies and targeted marketing offers. "Verizon did the respon- she said. None of the carri- Verizon said the sameq.
its affiliate 3C Interactive. The cutoff won't affect us- sible thing and promptly
Verizon says their contract ers' ability to share loca- announced it was cut-
was approved only for the tions directly with apps and ting these companies off,"
location tracking of outside other services. Rather, it Wyden said in a statement.
mobile phones called by deals with the practice of "In contrast, AT&T, T-Mobile,
prison inmates. selling data to third parties and Sprint seem content to
After a thorough review of with which users have no keep selling their customers'
its program, Verizon noti- direct connection. private information to these
fied LocationSmart and Zu- Wyden wrote all four ma- shady middle men, Ameri-
migo, both privately held, jor U.S. wireless carriers on cans' privacy be damned."
that it intends to "terminate May 8 after learning that Wyden has complained
a former sheriff in Missouri that people's physical secu-
had been accused of us- rity could be endangered if
ing Securus data for unau- the information falls in the