FTC Says Data Brokers Unlawfully Tracked Protesters and US Military Personnel

The FTC is taking action against Mobilewalla, Gravy Analytics, and its subsidiary Venntel for allegedly trafficking in sensitive mobile location data, including tracking individuals around protected sites such as churches, military bases, doctors’ offices, and domestic abuse shelters, and inferring health and religious attributes; Mobilewalla is accused of monitoring 2020 protesters and attempting to identify racial identities, while Gravy reportedly collected over 17 billion daily location signals from about a billion devices and sold access to agencies including DHS, DEA, and FBI.