Thought Exercise on CPNI

             I recognize that many of my posts are technical, complex, and “inside baseball.”  However, the matter of wireless carrier disclosure of location information is really, really, important, and rather easy to understand.  

             For public safety, national security, emergency response, and a host of other issues, location data can save lives.  On the other hand, commercial exploitation of location data can kill people. 

             It does not take too much speculation to come up with scenarios where disclosure for compensation by commercial ventures can trigger catastrophe.  For every bail bond professional tracking of a client who failed to show up in court, there are scenarios where location information makes it far easier for stalking and worse.

             Here’s a thought exercise.  Can you come up with any scenario where a landline or wireless telephone company will reveal to you the name and address of a subscriber?  There are commercial ventures that can disclose home and business addresses associated with a telephone number.  But no telecommunications carrier has ever agreed to disclose either a fixed or mobile location of a subscriber upon a one off, anonymous request. Directory Assistance provided a telephone number if you identified a name and address.  The carriers even monetized unlisted numbers for subscribers who did not disclosure of such relatively benign information.

             What could entitle the wireless carriers to disclose such location data on a commercial, contractual basis?

             Is anyone else livid that their location data was commercialized and monetized for years?  Is anyone disgusted by assertions that the FCC has no legal basis to act?