The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) prevented a knowledge dealer from promoting delicate geolocation knowledge, together with people’ medical visits, a groundbreaking transfer as advocates concern reproductive well being data is prone to being uncovered after the autumn of Roe v Wade.
The info dealer Outlogic, previously often called X-Mode Social, reached a settlement with the FTC following claims that the corporate was promoting knowledge that might be used to trace people’ journeys to “delicate areas,” like reproductive well being clinics.
The settlement marks the primary time the company has reached an settlement with a knowledge dealer regarding its efforts to promote delicate location knowledge.
The FTC famous that the placement data that the corporate offered “is just not anonymized,” making it straightforward to “match” the place somebody went with their cellphone.
“Geolocation knowledge can reveal not simply the place an individual lives and whom they spend time with but additionally, for instance, which medical remedies they search and the place they worship, FTC Chair Lina Khan mentioned in an announcement.
On high of inserting restrictions on promoting delicate location knowledge, the FTC’s settlement requires the corporate to delete knowledge that had been collected with out consent and to provide shoppers a “easy and easy-to-find manner” to dam the corporate from utilizing their knowledge.
The federal government has taken steps to safeguard people’ privateness lately, particularly after the landmark Supreme Court docket determination was reversed.
Abortion rights advocates on the time warned that knowledge from cellphone apps — together with period-tracking apps — might reveal womens’ sexual well being choices, and might be used nefariously.
In 2022, weeks after Roe was overturned, President Joe Biden signed an government order calling for businesses to “take extra steps” to guard affected person privateness, together with the “gross sales of delicate health-related knowledge.”
The identical 12 months, the FTC sued Kochava, one other knowledge dealer, alleging that the corporate has offered knowledge that might tie people’ telephones to the areas they visited, together with reproductive clinics and homes of worship. That case continues to be ongoing.
A bunch of senators launched laws in June 2022 aiming to stop knowledge brokers from promoting among the most delicate knowledge. And in Could 2023, California Congresswoman Sara Jacobs launched the My Physique, My Information Act, aiming to limit reproductive well being knowledge that firms can accumulate, and due to this fact misused.