United States of America: Proposed FTC consent order against Mobilewalla over alleged collection and sale of sensitive location data without verifification of consumers’ consent

On 3 December 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a consent order against Mobilewalla, banning the sale or use of sensitive location data and restricting the collection of consumer data from online ad auctions to auction participation only. Mobilewalla must allow consumers to delete their data or withdraw consent, erase historical location data, establish a privacy program, and verify consumer consent for data collection. The FTC alleged that, from 2018 to 2020, Mobilewalla collected over 500 million pieces of non-anonymised location data, selling it and using it for audience segmentation beyond advertising purposes.