On Monday, The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against Kochava, an Idaho-based app analytics firm, for selling cell phone geolocation data, which the agency said could be used to unmask people seeking or performing abortions.
In a press release, the FTC said Kochava’s data, much of which is collected from phones without the owners’ consent, can reveal people’s visits to sensitive locations like abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters, places of worship, and addiction recovery facilities.
The FTC said Kochava’s failure to add basic privacy protections to its location data is enabling bad actors to use the app to identify individuals and exposing them to stalking, physical violence, discrimination, and even job loss. The FTC claims Kochava was aware of this potential use, according to CNBC’s report.
The agency has ordered the firm to delete the data and stop collecting it in the future, according to The Post.
In July, two other companies, SafeGraph and Placer.ai, agreed to stop selling mobile location data following political pressure from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Democrats. Google also committed to automatically deleting visits to clinics and other sensitive locations.