A company that tracks and sells Americans' location data has seemingly been hacked

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

Jan. 10, 2025, 3:27 PM EST


One of the largest companies that tracks Americans’ location through smartphone data has been hacked by Russian cybercriminals in exchange for ransom, according to two cybersecurity researchers and a person who has posted a massive trove of allegedly hacked files. The incident would be one of the largest known breaches of a handful of controversial U.S. companies that sell individuals’ location data, a gold mine for advertisers as it can be used to extensively map a person’s life, usually without their knowledge.

The company, Gravy Analytics, and its subsidiary, Venntel, were accused last month by the Federal Trade Commission of illegally collecting and selling Americans’ location data without their knowledge or obtaining proper legal consent. Some of the people Gravy tracked were monitored going into sensitive locations like government buildings, health clinics and places of worship, the FTC said.

Smartphones create significant data from both how they connect to cell towers and wireless internet providers, as well as through apps, particularly third-party apps that require location data. The ubiquity of smartphones in everyday life has spurred an industry of shadowy companies that buy, package and sell data. While that data is usually advertised to marketers, it’s also sold to governments.

Gravy’s website has been down since at least Tuesday. Emails to it, Venntel and Gravy’s parent company, Unacast, could not be delivered. Several executives at the company contacted by NBC News did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/location-data-broker-gravy-analytics-was-seemingly-hacked-experts-say-rcna187038

[Autumn]

1. TikTok? No guess not.

Is this company going to be banned?

[snot]

2. This is an area where more & better legislation is desperately needed.

Right now there are no meaningful restrictions on data collection and sharing and no meaningful penalties or remedies for victims when those accessing such data fail to adequately protect it.

We need laws that:
(1) limit data collection and sharing to purposes that directly benefit the individuals whose data is collected or that are literally required by law;
(2) are structured as "opt-in" and are stated in standard, unambiguous language, with preference changes easily accessed by the individuals whose data is collected;
(3) require deletion of collected data once the purposes for which it was collected have been served;
(4) imposes automatic, strict liability penalties for data breaches in amounts sufficient to pay substantial damages to every individual affected and backed by insurance, so the company can't just go bankrupt and not pay anybody;
etc.

[erronis]

4. Legislation, ok. But it's prosecution that causes meaningful change.

And prosecution at the highest level - C-suite, BOD.

Ain't going to happen with the con-in-chief taking office.

[snot]

5. Laws could authorize class actions,

although I'm fine with adding enforcement to the authorities of government agencies as well.

I realize the program I've sketched here seems utopian, but I believe it's worth thinking about how things could be made better.

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. ... Progress is the realisation of Utopias." – Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis, p. 1051, Wordsworth Editions (1997).

[dickthegrouch]

7. We've just seen today that even conviction doesn't help

Prosecution is a mere inconvenience

[dickthegrouch]

6. Republicans aren't going to do any of that

Unless a significant number of them are tracked into sex clubs, bath houses, repressive consulates, drug dens, or other places of ill repute.

[IcyPeas]

9. "places of ill repute" aka The White House

[JoseBalow]

3. I love my Flip-Phone

[Skittles]

10. I have a "smart phone" but I NEVER take it with me

it always stays at home

[3Hotdogs]

8. I know that you were at Mary's last week, when you told your wife you were bowling.

We'll start with $500 and talk about more, later. I'll tell you tomorrow, where to send the money order as soon as I set up the P.O. Box.

Your friend,

Vlad.