Top carriers to stop selling location data

Sprint is the latest mobile carrier to promise to stop selling its customers’ location information to third parties following a report this month that exposed how the industry is trafficking in data.

The company said in a statement that it would end all sales to data aggregators. Sprint said the recent outcry over those practices changed its thinking.

“Last year we decided to end our arrangements with data aggregators, but assessed that the negative impacts to customers for services like roadside assistance and bank fraud alerts/protection that would result required a different approach,” Sprint said in the statement. “We implemented new, more stringent safeguards to help protect customer location data, but as a result of recent events, we have decided to end our arrangements with data aggregators.”