FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete data | Hacker News Reader

FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete data

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104 pointsmarban22 comments

FTC press release: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/...

Sen Wyden fighting the good fight in usual form:

> Sen. Ron Wyden, whose office first revealed that X-Mode had sold location data to U.S. military contractors, said in response to the FTC’s findings: “I commend the FTC for taking tough action to hold this shady location data broker responsible for its sale of Americans’ location data.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqm5x/us-military-location-...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-and-google-to-stop-x-mode...

https://therecord.media/ftc-settles-case-geolocation-data-br...

Which defense contractor would want that data? Palantir?

There are tons of contractors that are just middlemen, collecting and packaging data from other companies. See https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/how-federal-government...

This way the government doesn't have to interact (or even be able to identify) where exactly the data is sourced from.

The contractor is just a smokescreen in this case. The point is the Government pays the contractor, which is what shows up in subpoenas and congressional budget hearings, and the paperwork says the contract is in support of Such and Such contract.

If someone is using FOIA requests to gather information, They see DOD paid Foobar, inc. $56 million for the FUBAR contract. You then go to FUBAR, and you find the request and parameters, which are 300 pages of word salad, and then you read the proposals, which are 150 words each of a combination of buzzword bingo, legalese, and contracting pandering. None of which makes it obvious that the contract is "Buy data on our behalf, to shield the program from oversight".

I guess Wyden is doing the right by keeping low profile and just working on issues. But on the other hand I really would love to see him run for president. I don't always 100% agree with his initiatives but he really seems to be thoughtful and making a real effort in creating policies that make sense. Which is something that's out of fashion these days in DC.

I get the sentiment, but this pitch basically boils down to, "I love him as a legislator, I wonder if he'd be any good as an administrator?" I think the greatest fault is what this says about the complete lack of talent available in the modern administrative class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

This is a great example of something that irks me during data privacy debates from the side of "well if there's no personally identifying data, it's fine." It would seem that since X-Mode only sells location data tied to a device, which is technically "anonymous" then this is likely why it flew under the radar for so long. It's not like they're saying "oh, such and such was here at this time."

however, the reality is that ALL personal data is potentially personally identifying, especially when collected and analyzed in aggregate with other data sources. I wish the public conscious would somehow accept this fact and understand that personal data should always default to being in the hands of the user first.

> the reality is that ALL personal data is potentially personally identifying

To this point, an exercise for the reader might be to think about everywhere they've gone and how long they've been there for the past two weeks while considering every person who never left their side for this period. For the vast majority of people, that list will contain nobody, and that's why "anonymized" location data is still personal information.

> I wish the public conscious would somehow accept this fact and understand

If the only way for your government to protect its people from abusive and predatory business practices is for the general public to be familiar with the intricacies of how these abuses work then the way you select your political leaders sucks.

FTC Complaint 212-3038: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/X-Mode-Complain...

I just engage the hardware modem kill switch on my Librem 5 when I'm not making a call. You all don't seriously carry around GovCorp beacon pods which are "always on" do you?

How do people get ahold of you?

They are free to leave a message, and I'll get back at my leisure.

This is also a much healthier way to live life

I'm old enough that I wasn't raised from birth with a digital dog collar.

What is X-mode?

a data broker stealing people's data for profit.

Isn't that basically all of them?

Wouldn't the FTC ban them if they were?

Apparently not - look at venntel for example.

Considering that I have only very rarely given consent for my data to be sold or shared, and yet my data is commonly and widely sold through "legitimate" data brokers regardless, I think it's pretty clear that the answer is "no".

The FTC appears to require a much higher level of wrongdoing before effective punishment than I would prefer.

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