TechCrunch reports that U.S. data brokers Gravy Analytics and MobileWalla have been barred by the Federal Trade Commission from gathering and retaining Americans' private location information after allegedly engaging in the collection and sale of millions of location data points, including visits to places of worship and clinics.
Virginia-based Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel have been accused by the FTC of leveraging consumer location details without consent, as well as peddling health information, religious views, political activities, and other data to others. Non-anonymized sensitive location data, most of which acquired from third-party aggregators and bidding exchanges, have also been sold and used for targeted advertising by Georgia-based Mobilewalla, according to the FTC. Both data brokers' settlements with the FTC also imposes the deletion of historic location data and the creation of a sensitive location data program that would ensure protections for information indicating visits to health organizations, schools, religious institutions, and correctional facilities.
