TechCrunch News 2024年12月03日
FTC bans two data brokers from collecting and selling Americans’ sensitive location data
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美国联邦贸易委员会(FTC)宣布与两家数据经纪商Gravy Analytics和Mobilewalla达成和解协议,禁止其收集和保留美国民众的敏感位置数据。FTC指控这两家公司未经用户同意,收集并出售了数百万人的位置数据,包括医院、宗教场所等敏感地点,并将其用于商业和政府用途。和解协议要求这两家公司停止收集敏感位置数据,并删除已收集的历史数据,同时建立敏感位置数据程序,防止将用户访问这些地点的信息出售或分享给第三方。此举是美国政府加强数据隐私保护的最新行动,也反映出对数据经纪商收集和使用个人信息行为的监管日益严格。

🤔FTC指控Gravy Analytics及其子公司Venntel未经用户同意收集和使用位置数据,包括医院、宗教场所等敏感地点,并将其用于商业和政府用途,甚至在得知用户未提供知情同意的情况下仍继续使用这些数据。

📍Mobilewalla被指控出售敏感位置数据,包括可能泄露个人家庭住址的信息。FTC称Mobilewalla从实时竞价交易所和第三方聚合商获取大量数据,用户并不知情,且未对数据进行匿名化处理,也没有采取措施在出售数据前删除敏感位置信息。

🏢FTC还指控Mobilewalla利用敏感位置数据创建受众群体,例如,在2020年6月发布的一份报告中,分析了乔治·弗洛伊德逝世后参与抗议的人群,并确定了抗议者的种族背景以及他们是否居住在抗议所在的城市。

🚫根据和解协议,Gravy Analytics和Mobilewalla将停止收集用户敏感位置数据,并删除已收集的历史数据。

🛡️两家公司还必须建立敏感位置数据程序,包括制定敏感地点清单,并防止将用户访问这些地点的信息出售或分享给第三方,敏感地点包括医疗机构、宗教组织、学校和惩教设施等。

Two U.S. data brokers have agreed not to collect private location data on Americans as part of a pair of settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which accused the companies of unlawfully tracking millions of people near to sensitive locations like healthcare facilities and military bases.

The two settlements, announced Tuesday, will prohibit Virginia-based Gravy Analytics and Georgia-based Mobilewalla from collecting and retaining people’s sensitive granular location data. This agreement was reached after the FTC accused the two data brokers — companies that profit from collecting huge amounts of people’s personal information and selling it to others — of selling millions of identifiable location data points, including where people visited clinics and places of worship.

The FTC alleges that Gravy Analytics, along with its subsidiary Venntel, collected and used consumers’ location data for commercial and government uses without obtaining consent from the individuals. The organization allegedly continued to use this data even after learning that consumers hadn’t provided informed consent for their data to be sold.

Gravy Analytics also unfairly sold sensitive information about individuals, such as health or medical decisions, political activities and religious viewpoints, that had been derived and determined based on a person’s location data, according to the FTC’s complaint.

Mobilewalla is also accused of selling sensitive location data, including data that could reveal the identity of an individual’s private home, the U.S. federal regulator said.

The FTC alleges that Mobilewalla obtained much of this data from real-time bidding exchanges and third-party aggregators, which meant consumers did not know that the organization had obtained their personal information. This data was not anonymized, according to the complaint, and Mobilewalla is accused of having no policies in place to remove sensitive locations from the data before it sold the information to third parties.

The FTC says that Mobilewalla also used sensitive location data to develop audience segments to target consumers for advertising. For example, the company created a June 2020 report analyzing people who protested the death of George Floyd and determined the protesters’ racial backgrounds and whether they lived in the cities in which they protested, according to the FTC.

Under the two settlements announced on Monday, Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla will no longer collect sensitive location data on consumers, and must delete the historic data they have collected on millions of Americans.

Both organizations will also have to maintain a sensitive location data program, whereby they must develop a list of sensitive locations and prevent the use, sale, license, transfer, sharing, or disclosure of consumers’ visits to those locations. These locations include medical facilities, religious organizations, schools, and correctional facilities.

Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s questions.

This is the latest action taken by the U.S. government as the Biden administration draws to a close. On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule that would block data brokers from selling personal and financial information on Americans, including their Social Security numbers and phone numbers.

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数据经纪商 位置数据 FTC 隐私保护 数据安全
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