Media Contact: 
Austin Bonner, (202) 418-2500
Austin.Bonner@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

COMMISSIONER STARKS SEEKS DETAILS ON “BIDSTREAM” CONSUMER DATA AND PROCEDURES TO ENSURE DATA PRIVACY

WASHINGTON, August 5, 2020— Yesterday, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks sent letters to AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications inquiring about the aggregation and monetization of sensitive consumer data that is generated for advertising placement purposes. Recent reports indicate that this data is being used to track Americans’ locations to protests and places of worship.

In the letters, Commissioner Starks seeks details about AT&T and Verizon’s participation in real-time bidding exchanges for mobile advertising, including through the advertising technology companies they have acquired in recent years. The letters also request details on each provider’s policies and procedures to prohibit or minimize tracking of Americans to protests, including the Black Lives Matter protests, and other sensitive locations, including places of worship and medical providers. Specifically, the letters ask the companies to:

1. Explain their participation in monetizing or using customer data intended for advertising placement to advance non-advertising objectives, including location tracking.

2. Quantify the amount of U.S. location data distributed in real-time bidding processes.

3. Detail policies in place to minimize, destroy, or prohibit the tracking of American’s according to customer data, including specifically with relation to the Black Lives Matter protests.

4. Identify any authentication measures in place to ensure that “bidstream” data is not being inventoried, aggregated, or siphoned by entities.

5. Explain how the practices identified in the letter and news reports are not the functional equivalent of practices AT&T and Verizon told the Commission they had discontinued.

Last week, a bipartisan group of members of Congress sent a letter to the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into these practices. Commissioner Starks issued a joint statement with Representative Yvette Clarke recognizing the magnitude of these practices and the threat to Americans’ privacy. 


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Office of Commissioner Geoffrey Starks: (202) 418-2500 
ASL Videophone: (844) 432-2275
TTY: (888) 835-5322
Twitter: @GeoffreyStarks 
www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/geoffrey-starks

This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).