F%$# the Incumbent Carriers

In this case, it is T-Mobile, who just lost their appeal of $92,000,000.00 for selling customer location data without consent.

Their appeal was basically, "It's legal, because wer're T-Mobile."

The judges were less than receptive to this argument: 

A federal appeals court rejected T-Mobile's attempt to overturn $92 million in fines for selling customer location information to third-party firms.

The Federal Communications Commission last year fined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, saying the carriers illegally shared access to customers' location information without consent and did not take reasonable measures to protect that sensitive data against unauthorized disclosure. The fines relate to sharing of real-time location data that was revealed in 2018, but it took years for the FCC to finalize the penalties.

The three carriers appealed the rulings in three different courts, and the first major decision was handed down Friday. A three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against T-Mobile and its subsidiary Sprint.

………

Until 2019, T-Mobile and Sprint sold customer location information (CLI) to location information aggregators LocationSmart and Zumigo. The carriers did not verify whether buyers obtained customer consent, the ruling said. "Several bad actors abused Sprint and T-Mobile's programs to illicitly access CLI without the customers' knowledge, let alone consent. And even after Sprint and T-Mobile became aware of those abuses, they continued to sell CLI for some time without adopting new safeguards," judges wrote.

……… 

Instead of denying the allegations, the carriers argued that the FCC overstepped its authority. But the appeals court panel decided that the FCC acted properly: 

Needless to say, I expect Trump's FCC is already looking for a way to let your cell phone provider spy on you again.