Report from AdExchanger
In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with data broker Kochava over allegations that the firm engaged in unfair competition by improperly collecting and selling precise geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices. Under the proposed settlement Kochava is barred from selling or disclosing sensitive location data unless consumers provide explicit consent and the information is used for a service directly requested by the user. “Sensitive Locations” are defined as medical facilities, religious organizations, education or childcare services, temporary shelters or social services to homeless people or survivors of domestic violence, or installations related to the military or federal law enforcement. The agreement also requires the company to establish a comprehensive sensitive-location data compliance program, including an ability for consumers to withdraw consent.
Context – In terms of macro digital policy signals, slot this settlement in with other Trump Administration efforts rejecting progressive priorities while still trying to retain a populist, sometimes anti-tech regulatory perspective. The original FTC lawsuit, filed just a few months after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, was seen as Lina Khan’s FTC making good on a Biden Administration pledge to protect access to reproductive health care following the High Court’s abortion ruling. The settlement closing the case sets firm requirements around user consent related to sensitive location data, but there is no mention of reproductive health in the settlement or related materials, just health care in general. Judge Lynn Winmill, who must still approve the settlement, rejected the first FTC complaint but eventually ruled that the sale of granular and non-anonymized location data could expose consumers “to significant risks of secondary harms” and therefore could be judged an “unfair” trade practice Under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Act. Kochava settled a parallel consumer class action lawsuit more than a year ago that included similar privacy practices and was approved by Judge Winmill.