Over on TechDirt, Karl Bode writes:
Gravy Analytics, the parent company of Venntel, is like many dodgy data brokers. The company gleans vast troves of sensitive U.S. behavior and location cellphone data, then generally sells access to that data to a long line of folks. Including the U.S. government, which has increasingly turned to buying data broker data as a quick and easy end around for having to get a warrant.
Last month the FTC sued Gravy Analytics saying it routinely collects sensitive phone location and behavior data without getting the consent of consumers. This month, hackers claim to have compromised the giant surveillance company, gaining access to 17 terabytes of data, including a bunch of sensitive location data detailing the very specific movement patterns of U.S. consumers.
[…]
Now the one agency that actually did anything about the problem (the FTC) is about to be absolutely defanged under Trump because a handful of billionaires thought Lina Khan was being personally mean to them. Ain’t democracy grand.
Read it all on TechDirt.