The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against General Motors (GM) and OnStar over allegations they collected, used, and sold drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior information from millions of vehicles—data that can be used to set insurance rates—without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent. Under a proposed order settling the FTC’s allegations, General Motors…
Christopher Brown reports: Google LLC and YouTube LLC must face some claims of a long-running proposed class action alleging they collected information concerning children who watched videos on their channels in violation of state privacy and consumer-protection laws. The plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that Google and YouTube engaged in highly offensive behavior in collecting children’s information without…
The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order prohibiting Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel from unlawfully tracking and selling sensitive location data from users, including data about consumers’ visits to health-related locations and places of worship. In a complaint first announced last month, the FTC alleged that Gravy and Venntel violated the FTC Act by unfairly selling sensitive consumer…
Suzanne Smalley reports: Texas’ attorney general is suing the insurance giant Allstate and its subsidiary Arity for allegedly illegally collecting, using and selling cell phone location and movement data belonging to more than 45 million Americans without their knowledge. Allstate harvested trillions of miles of that data from Americans’ cellphones through “secretly embedded” software Arity…