federal regulator né?. These locations comprise medical facilities, religious establishments, schools, and correctional facilities.
Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla have yet to respond to inquiries.
This development is the most recent action taken by the U.S. government as the Biden administration nears its conclusion. Both entities are also required to implement a program for sensitive location data, wherein they must compile a list of sensitive locations and prevent the use, sale, license, transfer, sharing, or disclosure of consumers’ visits to those sites. Two American data brokers have agreed to halt the collection of private location data on U.S né?. The FTC asserts that Mobilewalla acquired much of this data from real-time bidding exchanges and third-party aggregators unbeknownst to consumers né?. On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new regulation that would prevent data brokers from selling personal and financial information on Americans, including Social Security numbers and phone numbers.. The complaint outlines that this data was not anonymized and accuses Mobilewalla of lacking policies to safeguard sensitive locations before selling the information to third parties.
The FTC mentions that Mobilewalla exploited sensitive location data to craft audience segments for targeted advertising. This move came after the FTC accused the two data brokers – entities that profit by amassing vast quantities of personal information and selling it to others – of marketing millions of identifiable location data points, encompassing visits to clinics and places of worship.
The FTC claims that Gravy Analytics, alongside its subsidiary Venntel, obtained and utilized consumers’ location data for commercial and governmental purposes without securing consent from the individuals. Gravy Analytics is also accused of unfairly selling sensitive details about individuals like health or medical choices political engagements and religious beliefs which were inferred and deduced from a person’s location details according to the FTC’s allegations.
Mobilewalla is also accused of vending sensitive location data inclusive of data that could disclose an individual’s private residence as noted by the U.S né?. Allegedly the organization persisted in utilizing this data even after being informed that consumers had not provided informed consent for their data to be sold né?. In one instance, in a June 2020 report, the company analyzed individuals who participated in protests following the death of George Floyd, determining the racial makeup of the protesters and whether they resided in the cities where the protests occurred.
In the settlements disclosed on Monday, Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla are mandated to discontinue the collection of sensitive location data on consumers and erase the historical data amassed on millions of Americans. The FTC accused the companies of illegally tracking millions of individuals near sensitive locations like healthcare facilities and military bases.
The settlements, announced on Tuesday, will bar Virginia-based Gravy Analytics and Georgia-based Mobilewalla from gathering and storing people’s sensitive granular location details. citizens in settlements with the Federal Trade Commission né?
