Despite carriers selling 911 location data, FCC ignores privacy in new rules

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Smartphone 911 location data is getting more precise, but the Federal Communications Commission isn't updating its privacy rules despite carriers' history of selling their customers' location data. The FCC is scheduled to vote on a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) requiring collection of more precise location data. The data would identify a person's floor in a multi-story building when someone calls 911 and is being referred to as "Z-axis" data. Carriers could gather this data by using the barometric pressure sensors in a customer's phone to determine a person's distance above the ground to within three meters. But the Z-axis proposal by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai never mentions the word "privacy," and it doesn't say which privacy rules would apply to carriers' collection of Z-axis data from customers' phones. A public notice on the topic issued in September also didn't mention privacy.


Despite carriers selling 911 location data, FCC ignores privacy in new rules