The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against the US-based data broker Kochava for selling sensitive and precise geolocation data collected from hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
Collected data could allow Kochava’s clients to identify and monitor the movements of mobile users through a data feed available via online data marketplaces (i.e. AWS Marketplace) after paying for a $25,000 subscription. The FTC remarks that data provided by Kochava exposes individuals to threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss, and even physical violence.
The description of the service in the online marketplace provided by Kochava states that it offers “rich geo data spanning billions of devices globally.” The company also claimed that its location data feed “delivers raw latitude/longitude data with volumes around 94B+ geo transactions per month, 125 million monthly active users, and 35 million daily active users, on average observing more than 90 daily transactions per device.”
FTC highlights that the location data provided by Kochava is not anonymized, thus allowing its customers to combine it with the mobile device’s MAID, to identify the mobile device’s user or owner.
