[25-406] FCC v. AT&T

About this episode

The episode discusses the legal case between the FCC and AT&T regarding the misuse of customer location data.

Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, Inc. Justia · Docket · oyez.org Argued on Apr 21, 2026. Petitioner: Federal Communications Commission, et al. Respondent: AT&T, Inc. . Advocates: Jeffrey B. Wall (for AT&T, Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.) Vivek Suri (for the FCC, et al.) Facts of the case (from oyez.org) Between 2014 and 2019, AT&T operated a location-based services program in which it collected and shared its customers’ mobile location data with third-party service providers such as Life Alert and AAA. To provide this data, AT&T contracted with “location aggregators,” who in turn resold the data to service providers. AT&T required those providers to obtain customer consent for each location request and reviewed their procedures, but it did not directly verify customer consent before transferring data. In 2018, news reports began revealing that some service providers misused or failed to adequately protect customers’ location data. In response, AT&T halted access for those providers, and by March 2019, shuttered the entire location-data program. Prompted by these reports, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)…

People in this episode

Guests: Jeffrey B. Wall, Vivek Suri

Topics covered

• FCC
• AT&T
• location data
• customer privacy
• legal case
• telecommunications
• data protection

Keywords

• FCC
• AT&T
• location data
• customer consent
• telecommunications
• privacy violations
• legal investigation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Federal Communications Commission, AT&T, Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Life Alert, AAA

Books & works: Communications Act of 1934

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