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Verizon tech pleads to selling customer call data

Plea agreement, first reported by Ars Technica, sold Verizon customer info to private investigator for five years

As the internet of things, particularly wearables, continues to perpetuate, so too does the conversation around access and dissemination of personal data. But, as a plea deal struck by a Verizon technician reveals, the IoT is just one aspect of personal digital privacy.

As discovered by publication Ars Technica, former Verizon employee Daniel Traeger has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Southern Division and faces a maximum penalty of up to five years incarceration, up to $250,000 in fines, a combination of those two punishments, as well as supervised release.

Based in Birmingham, Ala., Traeger apparently met a private investigator sometime in 2009 and began selling the PI customer call log and location data, according to court documents.

Traeger was paid $50 per month of customer records, and sold around two records per month at the beginning of the relationship. By 2013, Traeger was selling enough info to bring in around $750 per month.

 

ABOUT AUTHOR

Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean focuses on multiple subject areas including 5G, Open RAN, hybrid cloud, edge computing, and Industry 4.0. He also hosts Arden Media's podcast Will 5G Change the World? Prior to his work at RCR, Sean studied journalism and literature at the University of Mississippi then spent six years based in Key West, Florida, working as a reporter for the Miami Herald Media Company. He currently lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.