Verizon has agreed to pay $7.4 million to settle a privacy investigation

Verizon Communications has agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $7.4 million to settle an investigation into the company’s use of consumers’ personal information for marketing purposes. This is the largest such payment the FCC has ever received in an investigation related solely to the privacy of telephone customers’ personal information. The settlement comes as the FCC is trying to look like it’s being tough on wireless phone companies. In late July, the commission sent Verizon a strongly worded letter in which Chairman Tom Wheeler said he was “deeply troubled” by Verizon’s decision to expand its network-management policy that targets customers of its unlimited data plans. Chairman Wheeler has come under fire from fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill, as well as consumer groups and even comedians like John Oliver, for bowing too much to the will of big broadband companies, as his agency attempts to redraft new Net neutrality rules. The rules are designed to replace regulation that a federal court threw out earlier this year. Critics have been especially unhappy with the chairman for drafting a proposal to reinstate Open Internet rules that they claim would allow broadband companies to pay for priority access to networks, creating so-called Internet fast lanes.