Security News > 2022 > August > FTC Sues Data Broker Over Selling Location Data for Hundreds of Millions of Phones

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it filed a lawsuit against Kochava, a location data broker, for collecting and selling precise geolocation data gathered from consumers' mobile devices.

The complaint alleges that the U.S. company amasses a "Wealth of information" about users by purchasing data from other data brokers to sell to its own clients.

The company advertises itself as a "Real-time data solutions company" and the "Largest independent data marketplace for connected devices." It also claims its Kochava Collective data marketplace provides "Premium data feeds, audience targeting, and audience enrichment" through a privacy-first by design approach.

The location data is offered to its customers in the form of a feed that can be accessed through online data marketplaces for a $25,000 subscription.

"Although the Kochava Collective collects latitude and longitude, IP address and MAID associated with a consumer's device, Kochava does not receive these data elements until days after, Kochava does not identify the location associated with latitude and longitude, nor does Kochava identify the consumer associated with the MAID," it said.

The lawsuit comes as the FTC in July cautioned businesses against the illegal use and sharing of highly sensitive data and false claims about data anonymization.

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https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/ftc-sues-data-broker-over-selling.html