FCC Levies $10 Million Fine Against Carriers for Breach of Consumer Privacy
The Federal Communications Commission announced today its largest privacy fines to date. The agency's first data security case stems from an investigation of TerraCome and YourTel American who "stored Social Security numbers, names, addresses, driver's licenses, and other sensitive information belonging to their customers on unprotected Internet servers that anyone in the world could access." The carriers will be fined $10 million for their breach of consumer privacy. Last month, the FCC reached a $7.4 million settlement with Verizon over privacy violations. EPIC previously urged the FCC to determine whether Verizon violated the Communications Act when it released consumer call detail information to the National Security Agency. Also, in response to a 2005 EPIC petition, the FCC strengthened privacy protections for telephone records, which EPIC defended in a "friend of the court" brief for the DC Circuit, establishing support for opt-in privacy safeguards. For more information, see EPIC: NCTA v. FCC (Concerning privacy of CPNI) and In re EPIC (NSA Telephone Records Surveillance).
October 24, 2014| Share:
