CNN: AT&T is telling customers they were hacked. Protecting data has been a big fight – from companies like AT&T

Currently, data privacy laws exist in 19 states covering at least 150 million Americans, though differing in scale and scope. There are federal regulations on specific areas of privacy, like laws covering medical data or information about children, and agencies like the FCC regulate telecommunications. But there is no large, comprehensive data privacy law at the federal level, and many state laws are basically written by industries through their lobbyists, said Alan Butler, executive director and president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

… “Like many other industries, the telecommunications industry sees the commercialization of data for advertising uses as an additional revenue source,” Butler said. 

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