December 3, 2024 at 11:08AM
The FTC has banned data brokers Mobilewalla and Gravy Analytics from collecting and selling Americans’ sensitive location data, including visits to churches and healthcare facilities. They must erase historical data, establish sensitive location programs, and are prohibited from future sales of such data, following earlier actions against similar companies.
### Meeting Takeaways
1. **FTC Action Against Data Brokers**: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has banned Mobilewalla and Gravy Analytics from collecting and selling location tracking data linked to sensitive locations, including churches, healthcare facilities, military installations, and schools.
2. **Unlawful Data Practices**:
– The FTC determined that both companies unlawfully collected and sold location data, which includes visits to sensitive sites tied to worship and health services.
– Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary, Venntel, built products that allowed customers to access historical location data and identify mobile users present at particular locations over a defined timeframe.
3. **Tools and Data Collection Methods**: Venntel provided clients (including public sector bodies) with tools for:
– Geo-fencing to record unique identifiers entering specific locations along with IP addresses and timestamps.
– Continuous tracking of devices.
– Access to detailed device information, including operating system and carrier type.
– Searching location signals linked to specific IP addresses.
4. **Extent of Data Collection**:
– Mobilewalla reportedly collected over 2 billion unique advertising identifiers from January 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020, and had harvested data tied to more than 183 million devices in 2021, with over 10 million in the first four months of 2022.
5. **Settlement Provisions**:
– Under the proposed FTC order, both Gravy Analytics and Venntel must cease the sale, disclosure, or use of sensitive location data and establish a program to regulate such data.
– Mobilewalla is also prohibited from collecting consumer data from online advertising auctions outside of participating in those auctions.
6. **Historical Data Erasure**: The order requires both companies to erase all historical location data accumulated and any products derived from this information.
7. **Continued Regulatory Focus**: This action is part of a broader effort by the FTC to address the unlawful collection and sale of sensitive location data, following previous lawsuits against other data brokers such as Kochava, InMarket Media, and Outlogic.
8. **Previous Settlement Examples**: In 2022, the FTC took legal action against Kochava for similar violations concerning the sale of precise geolocation data linked to sensitive locations.
### Conclusion:
These developments highlight the FTC’s increasing scrutiny of data brokers and their practices regarding the handling of sensitive location information.