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FCC Orders Sorenson Unit to Pay $34.6M Over Illegal Data Retention

Sorenson Communications has agreed to pay $34.6 million and implement a comprehensive compliance program to settle allegations from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that its subsidiary illegally retained call content of users who relied on captions to make and receive calls.


FCC Orders Sorenson Unit to Pay $34.6M Over Illegal Data Retention

CaptionCall, a unit of Sorenson, held onto data for up to three years of users who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech disabilities, through the Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IPCTS), the FCC stated in a press release on Tuesday. The company also submitted inaccurate information to the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund Administrator, the FCC said.


According to a consent decree, Sorenson agreed to pay a $5 million fine, $4 million to enhance privacy and data protection of TRS users, $12 million in redress to the TRS fund, and more than $13.6 million in IPCTS reimbursement claims.


CaptionCall must conduct an inventory to find any retained call data and implement a data retention schedule as part of the compliance considerations. Within 120 days, it must create a privacy enhancement plan and submit it to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. Additionally, it must invest in privacy-enhancing technology and implement an awareness campaign to benefit IPCTS users, especially about potential scams.


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“We are deeply committed to ensuring that consumers with disabilities have the same assurances of privacy as any other consumer,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC chairwoman, in the release. “TRS providers have to take additional precautions given their unique access to the content of their customers’ calls, and we will continue our vigilance on this front to ensure those responsibilities are met.”


Sorenson could not immediately be reached for comment.

By fLEXI tEAM

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