Recently there was an article published on Motherboard which revealed that for just $300, a bounty hunter was able to quickly and accurately obtain the location of a phone. This is apparently due to the location data sharing deals that carriers have with certain companies, in which the issue was that it wasn’t regulated properly as to who could use said data.In response to the article, AT&T has since announced that they will be cutting off all location data sharing ties this coming March, promising that they will no longer be selling your location data to aggregation services even if it means that it could break certain useful and beneficial services.
According to a statement made to CNET, AT&T said, “Last year we stopped most location aggregation services while maintaining some that protect our customers, such as roadside assistance and fraud prevention. In light of recent reports about the misuse of location services, we have decided to eliminate all location aggregation services – even those with clear consumer benefits.”
AT&T is not alone in this either as T-Mobile has also responded to the article, with the company’s CEO also promising that location data sharing will end in March after he was called out by Senator Ron Wyden on Twitter.
I keep my word, @RonWyden. T-Mobile IS completely ending location aggregator work. We’re doing it the right way to avoid impacting consumers who use these types of services for things like emergency assistance. It will end in March, as planned and promised.
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 9, 2019