The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will purportedly shield American telecom companies from having to pay $200 million in fines for disclosing consumers' locations, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) informed on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
The regulator attempted to penalize AT&T Inc., Sprint Corp., T-Mobile US Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. as the nation's top mobile carriers failed to protect their customers' real-time location data, following numerous public reports in 2020. In August this year FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued "four forfeiture orders" targeting the telecom corporations in August of this year.
The FCC will require the backing of three of the four commissioners on the American telecom regulator's board in order to proceed with the seizure orders. The sources claim that two Democratic commissioners have voted to approve the fines, whilst two Republican members have not yet revealed their decision.
