AT&T says it’ll stop selling location data amid calls for federal investigation
They are lying.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.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.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".