2y ago

FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete collected data

techcrunch.com

FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete collected data | TechCrunch

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2y ago

FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete collected data

techcrunch.com /2024/01/09/ftc-x-mode-ban-delete-location-data/

18 comments

For those curious, the apps that sold your specific geolocation data were "Drunk Mode" and "Walk Against Humanity".
Edit: Although Wikipedia notes that X-Mode's SDK is in use in more than 400 apps. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Mode_social#cite_note-13
This is a big win for privacy advocates as well:
"By securing a first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data, the FTC is continuing its critical work to protect Americans from intrusive data brokers and unchecked corporate surveillance,” said Khan.
And the fine...the fine...? Money is the only language they speak.
- They just lost a huge part of their buisness revenue permanently. The FTC prohibited them from selling their most valuable type of data, and from collecting it in the future.
  This action will also cause all of these other data brokers to tighten up their likely shitty practices or be next, so this is a big privacy win in several directions.
  That's an excellent fine. The FTC chair, Lina Khan, is an absolute beast. She is fighting mergers like a motherfucker and shutting shits like this down.
  
  Ok. If I take 100 dollars off you each month until the police stop me. Stopping me is punishment enough because I lose revenue.
  Talking money off you and taking your data and selling it on is different, but both are wrong and both should come with a punishment. Not just an order to stop.
  In the EU they wouldn't have tried this in the first place, because they'd get fined.
  
  permanetly
  What stops them from doing it again?
  What stops other busunesses from carrying on until their caught? No one is in jail.
- Nah it's other people's money so it doesn't matter. Fines are just a business expense. Jail is the only thing that gets through.
Do Google next, you cowards.
- More like FBI or DEA. If the NSA wants it they just hack them.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For at least one of its contracts, the FTC said that X-Mode provided an unnamed private clinical research company with information about consumers who had visited certain medical facilities, pharmacies or specialty infusion centers within a geographic area across Columbus, Ohio.
X-Mode also failed to ensure that users of its own apps — Drunk Mode and Walk Against Humanity — were fully informed about how their precise location data would be used, the FTC said.
“The information revealed through the location data that X-Mode/Outlogic sold not only violated consumers’ privacy but also exposed them to potential discrimination, physical violence, emotional distress, and other harms,” the FTC said in a statement.
“Geolocation data can reveal not just where a person lives and whom they spend time with but also, for example, which medical treatments they seek and where they worship,” said FTC chair Lina M. Khan.
“The FTC’s action against X-Mode makes clear that businesses do not have free license to market and sell Americans’ sensitive location data.”
Adherence to the FTC’s newly introduced policy will be ensured by implementing additional technical processes and will not require any significant changes to business or products.”
The original article contains 647 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

18 comments