House Commerce GOP Leaders Probe Wireless Carriers and Third Parties Over Location Sharing Practices

Republican leaders of the House Commerce Committee and Subcommittees sent letters requesting information from six companies about the sale and misuse of cell phone geolocation data. The letters were sent to Zumingo, Microbilt, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. The letters seek to increase transparency surrounding how US wireless carriers and third parties are accessing, transferring, storing, and securing customer location information. The letters come as recent media reports have indicated that Zumingo, a location aggregation firm, purchased geolocation data from T-Mobile and subsequently sold the data to Microbilt, which further sold the data to a bail bond company. The letters also build off letters the committee sent in 2018 to location aggregation companies LocationSmart, Securus Technologies, and 3C Interactive. The representatives asked for a briefing on January 30.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH), Consumer Protection Subcommittee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Brett Guthrie (R-KY) signed the letters.