WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders today sent letters requesting information from location data aggregator LocationSmart and third-party services Securus Technologies and 3CInteractive regarding reports of misuse of personally identifiable consumer location information collected by wireless providers.
The letters come as recent media reports have indicated Securus Technologies may have impermissibly allowed U.S. law enforcement to request sensitive location information through LocationSmart, with 3CInteractive acting as an intermediary, for investigative or surveillance purposes. The use of such data for these purposes would have been in contravention of some or all of the wireless providers’ authorized purposes for location aggregators and third-parties.
Full committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH), Communications and Technology Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Oversight and Investigations Chairman Gregg Harper (R-MS) signed today’s letters.
The leaders wrote, “In the wake of the privacy scandals that surfaced earlier this year, we remain concerned about whether U.S. companies are properly incentivized to examine what sensitive personal information they hold about consumers and whether they are taking appropriate steps to protect that information on behalf of all Americans. The lack of clear notice to customers and affirmative opt-in consent from those customers before they received personally identifiable customer location information is troubling."
