SJ Digital Consumer Protections Firm Sues AT&T Over Data Use

SAN JOSE, CA — With the help of a Los Angeles law firm, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court Tuesday on behalf of AT&T customers in California to stop the telecom giant and two data location firms from gaining access to wireless customers' real-time locations without authorization.

An investigation by Motherboard earlier this year revealed that any cellphone user’s precise, real-time location could be bought for just $300 through the services of deemed "bounty hunters."

The report showed that telecom carriers including AT&T were making this data available to hundreds of third parties without first verifying that users had authorized such access. AT&T not only failed to obtain its customers’ express consent, it created an active marketplace that trades on its customers’ real-time location data.

“AT&T and data aggregators have systematically violated the location privacy rights of tens of millions of AT&T customers,” EFF Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey said. “Consumers must stand up to protect their privacy and shut down this illegal market.

The lawsuit alleges AT&T violated the Federal Communications Act and engaged in deceptive practices under California’s unfair competition law, as AT&T deceived customers into believing that the company was protecting their location data.

"Defendants’ practices allow plaintiffs and other AT&T customers to be tracked
and targeted by unknown third parties without their knowledge. AT&T leverages the technology
embedded within a customer’s phone and its own network infrastructure to locate its customers
without any indication that AT&T is tracking them in order to sell their precise location to third
parties for non-911 purposes, the complaint reads. "This highly sensitive data has also been used to harass AT&T customers and bypass the rights afforded by the Fourth Amendment."

The disclosure of a wireless user's location in real time provides an unethical window into the intimate details of their lives such as where they go to the doctor, where they worship, where they live, and much more,” Pierce Bainbridge law associate Abbye Klamann Ognibene said.

The suit seeks monetary damages and an injunction against AT&T, as well as the involved location data aggregators, LocationSmart and Zumigo. The injunction would prohibit AT&T from selling customer location data and ensure that any location data already sold is returned to AT&T or destroyed.

Regarding the guarding of its customers personal wireless data, AT&T has long stated that it would “not sell [their] personal information to anyone for any purpose. Period," the complaint reads.

AT&T representatives were unavailable as of press time Tuesday.

Founded in 1990, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is an advocacy group that works to protect civil liberties in the digital world.