<story><title>AT&amp;T says it’ll stop selling location data amid calls for federal investigation</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/10/phone-companies-are-selling-your-location-data-now-some-lawmakers-want-federal-investigation/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>En_gr_Student</author><text>They are lying.&lt;p&gt;The only winning strategy is if the FBI does investigate, and if there is an actual penalty.  Nothing less will impact the long term behavior of AT&amp;amp;T or any other cell company.&lt;p&gt;Seriously, it is game theory.  They are saying &amp;quot;we will stop&amp;quot; because of the presence of the threat.  If the threat goes away, then they are going to keep making money&amp;#x2F;selling you until the threat comes back.  Like the boy crying wolf, the villagers (fbi) takes longer to build momentum for the second event than for the first.&lt;p&gt;The organization is the least common denominator, so its moral capacity is the worst of a 5 year old child.  Like raising&amp;#x2F;disciplining a child, the only way to change their negative behavior is to add an expected penalty to the behavior that is larger than the expected gain, so the risk-reward evaluation they make says &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t do it&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>usefulcat</author><text>Surely their offer to stop is strong evidence that an investigation is warranted..</text></comment>
<story><title>AT&amp;T says it’ll stop selling location data amid calls for federal investigation</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/10/phone-companies-are-selling-your-location-data-now-some-lawmakers-want-federal-investigation/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>En_gr_Student</author><text>They are lying.&lt;p&gt;The only winning strategy is if the FBI does investigate, and if there is an actual penalty.  Nothing less will impact the long term behavior of AT&amp;amp;T or any other cell company.&lt;p&gt;Seriously, it is game theory.  They are saying &amp;quot;we will stop&amp;quot; because of the presence of the threat.  If the threat goes away, then they are going to keep making money&amp;#x2F;selling you until the threat comes back.  Like the boy crying wolf, the villagers (fbi) takes longer to build momentum for the second event than for the first.&lt;p&gt;The organization is the least common denominator, so its moral capacity is the worst of a 5 year old child.  Like raising&amp;#x2F;disciplining a child, the only way to change their negative behavior is to add an expected penalty to the behavior that is larger than the expected gain, so the risk-reward evaluation they make says &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t do it&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wilkystyle</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure even a penalty will be enough, given how most of them end up being a slap on the wrist that is easily affordable.</text></comment>