In a landmark settlement, the FTC will prohibit the data broker X-Mode, now known as Outlogic, from selling location data related to sensitive locations such as places of worship, reproductive health clinics, and domestic abuse shelters, and more. The move comes years after I published an investigation which found X-Mode, some of whose clients were U.S. military contractors, harvested some of its data from a massive Muslim prayer app with 98 million downloads, as well as a Muslim dating app. Naturally, those apps could provide information on people who visit places of worship.
X-Mode’s business model involved encouraging app developers to bundle X-Mode code into their apps; in return X-Mode paid developers a fee based on the size of their user base
It’s worth noting that the nail in the coffin for X-Mode was not it’s shady business dealings but that it did not provide Notice and Consent of data collection and sharing. The remediation...
It’s worth noting that the nail in the coffin for X-Mode was not it’s shady business dealings but that it did not provide Notice and Consent of data collection and sharing. The remediation proposed is mostly to bake in privacy practices that have been recently codified by law in various US States.
I bring this up to help bring light that it’s relatively straightforward to be legally compliant with data collection, but there’s a perceived risk to businesses telling people what they actually do with your data.
So creepy!
It’s worth noting that the nail in the coffin for X-Mode was not it’s shady business dealings but that it did not provide Notice and Consent of data collection and sharing. The remediation proposed is mostly to bake in privacy practices that have been recently codified by law in various US States.
I bring this up to help bring light that it’s relatively straightforward to be legally compliant with data collection, but there’s a perceived risk to businesses telling people what they actually do with your data.