{"id":13486,"date":"2022-08-30T14:43:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T14:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/30\/ftc-sues-data-broker-for-letting-people-track-health-clinic-visitors\/"},"modified":"2022-08-30T14:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T14:43:59","slug":"ftc-sues-data-broker-for-letting-people-track-health-clinic-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/30\/ftc-sues-data-broker-for-letting-people-track-health-clinic-visitors\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC sues data broker for letting people track health clinic visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/29\/23326960\/ftc-kochava-lawsuit-abortion-location-tracking-data-broker<\/a>
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The Federal Trade Commission has sued app analytics firm Kochava for selling sensitive geolocation data, including details that could unmask people seeking or performing abortions.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims<\/a> Kochava failed to add basic privacy protections to its location data, much of which is collected from phones without the owners\u2019 knowledge. \u201cKochava\u2019s data can reveal people\u2019s visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and addiction recovery facilities,\u201d the FTC said<\/a> in a press release. \u201cBy selling data tracking people, Kochava is enabling others to identify individuals and exposing them to threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss, and even physical violence.\u201d The agency demands Kochava cease selling sensitive data and delete any such information it\u2019s collected.<\/p>\n

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1. Today @FTC<\/a> sued data broker Kochava for selling geolocation data that can be used to track people at addiction recovery facilities, reproductive health clinics, places of worship, shelters, and other sensitive locations.https:\/\/t.co\/um54nTOHCQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lina Khan (@linakhanFTC) August 29, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The suit follows an FTC promise<\/a> to crack down on medical location data sharing, a widespread issue that\u2019s become particularly fraught after the demise of Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/a>. Outlets, including Motherboard,<\/em> have reported<\/a> on data brokers selling cheap access to geolocation data around reproductive health clinics \u2014 something that could compromise visitors\u2019 privacy and open them up to harassment or legal action. Following pressure from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and others, data brokers SafeGraph and Placer.ai committed<\/a> to ending the practice, and Google said it would automatically delete<\/a> visits to clinics and other sensitive locations.<\/p>\n

But the FTC says Kochava made it easy, and in some cases free, to track down sensitive data. While the company\u2019s services typically cost thousands of dollars, it also offers a free trial with \u201cminimal steps and no restrictions on usage.\u201d According to the complaint, that sample let the FTC identify a visitor to a women\u2019s reproductive health clinic, then tie it to a home address that would likely expose the visitor\u2019s identity. In another case, it identified a phone whose owner spent the night in a shelter for at-risk pregnant women or new mothers. The agency calls on Kochava to add safeguards around sensitive locations, something it says could be done at a \u201creasonable\u201d cost.<\/p>\n

Kochava disputed the allegations in a statement. \u201cKochava operates consistently and proactively in compliance with all rules and laws, including those specific to privacy,\u201d said general manager Brian Cox. \u201cFor the past several weeks, Kochava has worked to educate the FTC on the role of data, the process by which it is collected, and the way it is used in digital advertising. We hoped to have productive conversations that led to effective solutions with the FTC about these complicated and important issues and are open to them in the future. Unfortunately the only outcome the FTC desired was a settlement that had no clear terms or resolutions and redefined the problem into a moving target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update August 29th, 5:45PM ET: <\/strong><\/em>Added statement from Kochava.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/29\/23326960\/ftc-kochava-lawsuit-abortion-location-tracking-data-broker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The Federal Trade Commission has sued app analytics firm Kochava for selling sensitive geolocation data, including details that could unmask people seeking or performing abortions. The lawsuit claims Kochava failed to add basic privacy protections to its location data, much of which is collected from phones without the owners\u2019 knowledge. \u201cKochava\u2019s data can reveal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-13486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","category-technology","tag-policy"],"yoast_head":"\nFTC sues data broker for letting people track health clinic visitors - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/30\/ftc-sues-data-broker-for-letting-people-track-health-clinic-visitors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FTC sues data broker for letting people track health clinic visitors - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: The Federal Trade Commission has sued app analytics firm Kochava for selling sensitive geolocation data, including details that could unmask people seeking or performing abortions. 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