The FTC alleged that the company sold data that tracked people's visits to sensitive locations.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Kochava, a company that describes itself as "the industry leader for mobile app attribution and mobile app analytics." The US FTC accused the data broker of selling sensitive user location data that showed people visiting locations such as reproductive health clinics, places of worship, addiction recovery centers, and domestic violence shelters, among others.
The US FTC complaint said that Kochava had gathered and sold data that would enable others to "identify individuals and exposing them to threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss, and even physical violence." The purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent Kochava from selling sensitive user location data it collected and to protect people's privacy.
How Kochava Collected People's Geolocation Data
Kochava, which is based in Idaho, has collected geolocation data from hundreds of millions of smartphones and other mobile devices. According to Bleeping Computer, the company would provide access to consumers' location data via a data feed that is accessible by its clients through online data marketplaces.
Access to this data feed costs $25,000 for a subscription. Kochava provided a free sample dataset that contained geolocation data that was collected over the last seven days. The free sample dataset was available until June 2022.
Kochava then promoted this data feed to clients on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, claiming that they were able to provide "rich geo data spanning billions of devices globally." The data broking company added that its location data feed provided "raw latitude/longitude data" with up to 94 billion geo transactions monthly, 125 million monthly active users, and 35 million daily active users. They also boasted of observing an average of 90 transactions daily per device.
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Why People's Privacy Matters
If the US FTC wins the lawsuit against Kochava, the data broker will be forced to halt selling sensitive geolocation information and delete all the data it has collected thus far. This is important, especially following the US Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, which granted abortion access across America, Engadget reported.
The US FTC is determined to prevent Kochava from selling geolocation data that may be used to identify a person who visits or works at a reproductive health facility in order to protect their privacy. The FTC's lawsuit comes shortly after Kochava filed a lawsuit against the agency for overreaching.
In a press release published a day before Kochava filed a complaint against the US FTC, the company said it would introduce "Privacy Block," which prevents health services locations from being included in the Kochava Collective marketplace in response to issues raised by the American consumer watchdog. The FTC said earlier this month that they are establishing new rules on cracking down on businesses that collect, analyze, and monetize information on its consumers.
On July 20, the US House of Representatives approved the American Data and Privacy Protection Act, which seeks to "provide consumers with foundational data privacy rights, create strong oversight mechanisms, and establish meaningful enforcement." Negotiations are currently ongoing for the bill to pass both the full House and the Senate.
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