Report from MediaPost
In Brief – Data broker Kochava has reportedly negotiated a settlement with lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that the company improperly sold sensitive mobile device geolocation data. The terms of the deal have not been released and require the approval of the two current FTC commissioners and US District Judge Lynn Winmill. The FTC sued Kochava in August 2022 alleging the company violated Sec. 5 of the Federal Trade Act by selling precise location data and mobile advertising IDs tied to specific devices. Regulators argued that such data could reveal highly sensitive personal information, such as visits to medical offices or religious institutions. Kochava consistently denied wrongdoing, maintaining that it complied with privacy laws and that the data it sells was not “personally identifiable.” The company also argued that, even if the allegations were true, its practices would not violate the Federal Trade Act’s ban on unfair business conduct.
Context – If Judge Winmill approves the Kochava settlement it will close a landmark complaint related to the monetization of mobile phone geolocation data. Winmill dismissed the initial FTC complaint as too “theoretical”, but reversed his stance on the agency’s amended complaint, ruling that if Kochava’s business customers could purchase location data that is granular and non-anonymized that it could expose consumers “to significant risks of secondary harms” and that could be judged an “unfair” trade practice. Kochava also faced a consumer class action lawsuit that followed on the FTC’s action. The company reached a settlement with the private plaintiffs last year that included agreeing to implement a robust “privacy block” designed to prevent the sharing or use of raw location data linked to a range of sensitive sites, allowing consumers to opt out of data collection through a simple web form, creating a “blacklist” to ensure that opted-out data is completely excluded from all uses, and confirming that all collected data is used only for the benefit of the originating app. Winmill approved that settlement.