Sergiu Gatlan reports:
Today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned data broker Outlogic, formerly X-Mode Social, from selling Americans’ raw location data that could be used for tracking purposes.
Under the order released today, the first time data brokers were barred from sharing and selling users’ sensitive location data, Outlogic must now delete all unlawfully collected sensitive location data, including any models or algorithms derived from this data.
This action is in response to data brokers’ practices of exposing individuals’ location data and revealing much more sensitive information, such as medical visits and religious affiliations.
The FTC’s complaint sheds light on Outlogic’s history of selling consumer location data to hundreds of clients across diverse industries, including real estate, finance, and government sectors. Despite these activities, the FTC says the company lacked protocols to remove sensitive locations from the raw data it sold.
To make matters worse, even when individuals opted out of using their location data for marketing purposes, Outlogic sometimes failed to respect their preferences.
Read more at Bleeping Computer.