AT&T slammed with lawsuit for selling its customers' location data

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Back in May, we told you that all four major U.S. carriers were defendants in class action suits claiming that each of them sold their customers' location data. This followed a report in The New York Times the previous May that explained how carriers sell location data to third-party firms who then sell that information to advertisers, law enforcement agencies and others. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a suit against AT&T (via The Verge) that seeks class-action status on behalf of the carrier's California subscribers.

Besides AT&T, other defendants include LocationSmart and Zumigo. The pair are data aggregators that collect location data and sell it to third parties. The EFF and its co-plaintiff, law firm Pierce Bainbridge, say that AT&T's customers never gave the wireless provider the right to use its data for commercial use. The location data is meant to be used to track emergency calls only. The EFF is an international non-profit group that defends "digital privacy, free speech, and innovation."