Comcast, which like Charter runs its wireless phone and broadband service through an MVNO with Verizon, told the FCC this week that, also like Charter, it does not share its users' geolocation data with third parties, including advertisers.
Comcast told the FCC that protecting customer's privacy is fundamental to its business, which is why it launched the Xfinity Privacy Center in 2019, which included a pledge not to sell location data.
Comcast said it neither sells nor shares any consumer geolocation data with third parties for their own purposes. As with other carriers, it shares info with law enforcement under some circumstances, and it also share it with service providers that process data for Comcast as part of Comcast's provision of service. Those providers must treat the information a confidential and safeguard the data with multi-factor identification.
Also: Charter Says Third Parties Don't Get Third-Party Geolocation Info
FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel reached out to carriers last month asking for an update on how they treated geolocation data they collect.
In letters to more than a dozen top carriers last month, Rosenworcel noted that the nation’s largest carriers had pledged back in 2020 to end the sale of real-time location data to aggregation services, after the FCC fined them more than $200 million for not taking appropriate steps to protect that data. But a subsequent (2021) Federal Trade Commission report found that ISPs continued to collect more data than was necessary “to provide services” and more than consumers expected them to, she noted.
In 2020, geolocation information had reportedly made its way to bounty hunters and others. The fined ISPs’ subscribers were unable to opt out of the collection of that data because it is used to provide the underlying service. Rosenworcel had pressed the FCC, then headed by Republican Ajit Pai, to investigate the matter, and had pushed carriers on whether they had ended the practice as promised.
Rosenworcel said that given that finding, she wanted the ISPs to get back to her on their specific data retention and third-party sharing policies for geolocation information.
Also: GOP Seeks Carrier Info on Location Data
The White House added its imprimatur to the probe, saying at the time the letters were sent out: "[T]he FCC Chairwoman [has written] to the top 15 mobile providers requesting information about their data retention and data privacy policies and general practices, consistent with the President’s commitment to protecting Americans’ privacy."
It repeated that promotional push this week, forwarding the FCC press release about releasing the carrier response letters. In that release, Rosenworcel signaled those responses would help the Enforcement Bureau with its "new investigation into mobile carriers’ compliance with FCC rules that require carriers to fully disclose to consumers how they are using and sharing geolocation data." ■
