One of the world's largest mobile data brokers, Kochava, has lost its battle to stop the Federal Trade Commission from revealing what the FTC has alleged is a disturbing, widespread pattern of unfair use and sale of sensitive data without consent from hundreds of millions of people.
US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill recently unsealed a court filing, an amended complaint that perhaps contains the most evidence yet gathered by the FTC in its long-standing mission to crack down on data brokers allegedly "substantially" harming consumers by invading their privacy.
The FTC has accused Kochava of violating the FTC Act by amassing and disclosing "a staggering amount of sensitive and identifying information about consumers," alleging that Kochava's database includes products seemingly capable of identifying nearly every person in the United States.
[...]
the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Kochava from its allegedly unfair use and sale of consumer data.Winmill wrote in an order to unseal the amended complaint that the FTC still has to prove that Kochava has violated the FTC Act, but its arguments are sufficient to survive Kochava's motion for sanctions, which the judge's order also denied.
According to Winmill, Kochava "has not offered any compelling reason to maintain the amended complaint under seal."
"Certainly, the FTC's allegations cast Kochava's services in an unfavorable light," Winmill wrote. "But that is no reason to shield the complaint from public view."
Experts told The Record that the ruling was "a promising turnaround in a landmark FTC action against a major data broker" and noted that unsealing the complaint has now revealed "Kochava's shocking appetite for the most sensitive details of lives and the ways the company uses that data to profile, target, discriminate, and profit."
[...]
Winmill said that for now, the FTC has provided enough support for its allegations against Kochava for the lawsuit to proceed.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 09 2023, @04:52PM (8 children)
It's not just for FBI directors in dresses, anymore.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @07:57PM (4 children)
> ... mobile data brokers, ...
Seems like this isn't my problem since I don't have a mobile phone. I do borrow a flip phone from a relative on the rare occasion that I really need it, like when traveling.
Or...did they also track land line conversations and metadata?
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 09 2023, @09:49PM
The old buzz-acronym was ESCHELON. Intercepts of all kinds of voice traffic, transcribed, databased, cross-referenced, and keyword searchable. Want to know who was talking about Ousmanou Sonko in New York City in March of 2021 - who they were talking with, and other people those people regularly communicate with? Ask ESCHELON.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by cereal_burpist on Friday November 10 2023, @05:26AM (2 children)
Do you use a credit card? Customer loyalty cards/rewards programs, etc? People with mobile phones and social media accounts are just a little further down the spiral than you ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @02:12PM (1 child)
> ...just a little further down the spiral than you ;-)
Thanks for that (not sarcasm).
While I realize there is some randomness in who gets hit by identity theft & fraud, the thought that there are others that are "a little further down the spiral" seems roughly analogous to this adage:
In the woods, I don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than you.
The slight inconvenience of not having my own mobile phone (in my personal situation) seems like it is worth the trade off.
(Score: 2, Informative) by cereal_burpist on Saturday November 11 2023, @03:41AM
Good point. Reminds me of defense-in-depth: Not having a mobile phone is just another layer of security.
(Score: 3, Funny) by crafoo on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:01PM
to be fair, there was a real communist infiltration and subversion happening to the US Gov at the time.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 09 2023, @09:09PM (1 child)
Is that really fair? I don't think he wore his dresses in public, did he? At least, not often. Come on, Man, where's your tolerance?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 09 2023, @09:53PM
Doesn't matter what JEHoover did or didn't actually do. His cultural influence on law enforcement made cross dressing, homosexuality etc. even more of something to be deeply ashamed of than it already was. Something to be afraid of reprisals from both the community in general and law enforcement specifically, and therefore a pressure point for public and even not-so-public figures: do as we say, or we'll "out" you.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Thursday November 09 2023, @06:18PM (11 children)
> the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Kochava
Whack one, two more pop up...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday November 09 2023, @06:41PM (7 children)
An unfortunately likely scenario. How was it that the Hydra was killed? Stabbing it in the heart? What's the equivalent for a Corporation? Mandatory jail time for all the executives? Or maybe, hold the investors accountable? Who set it up in the first place? Some rich dude living high on life in the Caribbean? Let's go ahead and haul him in to court.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 09 2023, @06:44PM (3 children)
>Some rich dude living high on life in the Caribbean? Let's go ahead and haul him in to court.
That only happens in Ponzi schemes where lots of rich voters lost money.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday November 09 2023, @07:00PM (2 children)
Very little money is typically lost in ponzi schemes, even in the case of Madoff, nearly all of the money was eventually recovered and returned to investors
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @07:51PM
Maybe. Depends on who is Ponzi, hookers and blow expenditures seem like they would be hard to recover...?
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday November 10 2023, @04:26AM
That too is a courtesy extended only to rich people. Poor schmucks who lose their money to a scam usually never get anything back.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday November 09 2023, @09:34PM
The Hydra was killed by chopping off each head and immediately burning and cauterizing each wound before the heads could regrow.
To continue the analogy, the punishment for unfair use and sale of private customer data needs to be so severe that nobody will think to step into the gap just created. Holding executives personally accountable for damages might be enough, as would jail time if you could catch them. Perhaps the punishment should fit the crime though? Guilty parties to have their own private details published, along with bank account and social security numbers?
(Score: 1) by cereal_burpist on Friday November 10 2023, @05:17AM (1 child)
RIP John McAfee
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday November 10 2023, @03:09PM
Hmm..., that's an interesting rabbit hole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee [wikipedia.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:04PM (2 children)
well, whack them very, very hard. revoke their citizenship for everyone that knew, including their families. send them to African cobalt mines for life. send the monetary output of their labor to their ex local communities. auction off everything they owned: all paper assets, all real assets, everything.
(Score: 2) by EJ on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:08PM (1 child)
Sure will suck for you when someone you happen to casually know gets you deported...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DrkShadow on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:30PM
Guess you'd better keep up on what your financial acquaintances are doing, and un-acquaintance them should they start doing bad things.
In fact, this is exactly what the "Know your Customer" laws are -- they'll treat banks with criminals if they can possibly show that the bank "knew" or "should have known" that the customer was violating laws. They use the same tactics to suggest that all porn is illegal, and so banks stay away from porn, pot, etc.
Or we could just make those "know your customer/neighbor/random person" laws vanish, as a serious threat to free speech, freedom of association, and freedom generally.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 09 2023, @09:13PM (4 children)
I insist that laws need to be passed - and then ENFORCED - that stops data collection. Google, Facebook, and all of Big Tech need to be hamstrung. No one on God's green earth is entitled to my data. All the data collectors need to be punished, and shut down. No special protection for children, no carve out for government employees, no exceptions for this group or that. The practice needs to be ended, period.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:55PM (3 children)
... but hands off my guns! No special protection for children!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 09 2023, @11:34PM (2 children)
Data collection is not a constitutionally protected right.
The right to bear arms is a constitutionally protected right.
And, no, any carve out for any particular class of people leaves all the rest of us prey to the data brokers.
Now, which part of that is too difficult to understand?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @11:42PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @12:45AM
at least you're consistent - like diarrhea