from the this-is-why-we-can’t-have-nice-things dept
For decades, major wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile collected vast troves of sensitive user location and movement data, then sold access to any random nitwit with two nickels to rub together. The result was a parade of scandals wherein everybody from stalkers , law enforcement (or people pretending to be law enforcement), car companies, governments, and right wing extremists all happily abused the data in myriad, dangerous ways never made clear to the end user.
Though this behavior had been going on for years generating untold millions, it only gained mainstream attention thanks to a 2018 New York Times story showcasing how police and the prison system routinely bought access to this data and then failed completely to secure it. In 2020 the FCC finally proposed fining wireless carriers $196 million ($91 million for T-Mobile, $57 million for AT&T, $48 million for Verizon).
After four years of legal wrangling and delays (caused in part by the telecom industry’s sleazy, successful attack on the Gigi Sohn FCC nomination) the FCC announced they had voted to finally formalize the fines in April of last year:
“When placed in the wrong hands or used for nefarious purposes, it puts all of us at risk. Foreign adversaries and cybercriminals have prioritized getting their hands on this information, and that is why ensuring service providers have reasonable protections in place to safeguard customer location data and valid consent for its use is of the highest priority for the Enforcement Bureau.”
AT&T and the wireless carriers have spent much of the time since urging the Trumplican-heavy Fifth circuit to vacate the fine entirely. Quite obediently, the Fifth Circuit has obliged, this week vacating the FCC’s fines. In its order, the court agreed with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s interpretation that the FCC violated wireless carriers’ Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial:
“We reject the Commission’s argument that a section 504 enforcement proceeding satisfies Article III and the Seventh Amendment. The Commission cites no authority supporting the proposition that the constitutional guarantee of a jury trial is honored by a trial occurring after an agency has already found the facts, interpreted the law, adjudged guilt, and levied punishment.”
You’re to ignore that AT&T has been at the American vanguard of making jury trials impossible for customers through its use of fine print forcing users pursue binding arbitration, a lopsided system that finds in favor of corporations a vast majority of the time. Or that AT&T actively spends millions of dollars annually successfully lobotomizing the entirely of telecom oversight, be it congressional, legal or regulatory.
This is all dressed up as very heady, serious, adult reasoning by the Fifth Circuit, but it’s another example of how the U.S. far right genuinely doesn’t believe in corporate oversight or consumer protection. AT&T very clearly violated section 222 of the Telecommunications Act by not getting consumer consent before collecting and monetizing sensitive user location data. Its punishment will be: bupkis.
The authoritarian right is genuinely destroying all regulatory oversight of corporations through either executive order, regulatory capture, or a very lopsided court system. AT&T gets extra attentive, special treatment because it’s effectively bone-grafted to our domestic surveillance systems, routinely making it beyond accountability despite a long history of very obvious fraud.
In the minds of AT&T-friendly judges, lawyers, and think tanks, FCC’s authority to do anything varies depending on the day, week, and direction of the breeze as AT&T exploits a generally corrupt U.S. court system to routinely dodge accountability for… everything. A series of court rulings (like the Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy ruling the Fifth circuit is leaning on, and more recently Loper Bright) have made it almost impossible to rein in U.S. corporate power, quite by design.
Want regulators to protect you? They can no longer do so without the explicit approval Congress. Want Congress to protect you? Congress is too corrupt to function. Want the courts to protect you? They’re stocked with far-right Trumpies keen on ushering forth the golden age of corruption. Want your state to protect you? It’s increasingly under-resourced as federal governance falls apart and it’s overloaded by legal fights. Want to protect yourself? Your rights are increasingly being boxed in at every turn.
Again you’re to ignore that dysfunction leaves the public at the whims of predatory amoral corporate giants, the often-deadly symptoms of which are everywhere you look. You’re to politely nod at the sage wisdom of the very objective, reasonable, and entirely good faith court rulings and move along with your day as accountability, consumer rights, public safety, and the environment crumble around you.
Filed Under: 5th circuit, 7th amendment, corruption, fcc, location data, privacy, security, surveillance, telecom, wireless
Companies: at&t
