AT&T says it’ll stop selling location data amid calls for federal investigation
They are lying.<p>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&T or any other cell company.<p>Seriously, it is game theory.  They are saying "we will stop" because of the presence of the threat.  If the threat goes away, then they are going to keep making money/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.<p>The organization is the least common denominator, so its moral capacity is the worst of a 5 year old child.  Like raising/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 "don't do it".