![]() ![]() Then there are app publishers and software development kit (SDK) developers that embed tools in mobile apps to collect location information and provide the data to third parties. There are the mobile operating systems that provide the mechanisms for collecting the data. After it’s collected from a consumer, data enters a vast and intricate sales floor frequented by numerous buyers, sellers, and sharers. The marketplace for this information is opaque and once a company has collected it, consumers often have no idea who has it or what’s being done with it. The potent combination of location data and user-generated health data creates a new frontier of potential harms to consumers. While many consumers may happily offer their location data in exchange for real-time crowd-sourced advice on the fastest route home, they likely think differently about having their thinly-disguised online identity associated with the frequency of their visits to a therapist or cancer doctor.īeyond location information generated automatically by consumers’ connected devices, millions of people also actively generate their own sensitive data, including by using apps to test their blood sugar, record their sleep patterns, monitor their blood pressure, or track their fitness, or sharing face and other biometric information to use app or device features. This location data can reveal a lot about people, including where we work, sleep, socialize, worship, and seek medical treatment. When consumers use their connected devices – and sometimes even when they don’t – these devices may be regularly pinging cell towers, interacting with WiFi networks, capturing GPS signals, and otherwise creating a comprehensive record of their whereabouts. These strangers participate in the often shadowy ad tech and data broker ecosystem where companies have a profit motive to share data at an unprecedented scale and granularity. But there is a behind-the-scenes irony that needs to be examined in the open: the extent to which highly personal information that people choose not to disclose even to family, friends, or colleagues is actually shared with complete strangers. The conversation about technology tends to focus on benefits. It’s a question consumers are asking right now. This isn’t the stuff of dystopian fiction. Now consider the unprecedented intrusion when these connected devices and technology companies collect that data, combine it, and sell or monetize it. Standing alone, these data points may pose an incalculable risk to personal privacy. Smartphones, connected cars, wearable fitness trackers, “smart home” products, and even the browser you’re reading this on are capable of directly observing or deriving sensitive information about users. About the FTC Show/hide About the FTC menu itemsĪmong the most sensitive categories of data collected by connected devices are a person’s precise location and information about their health. ![]() News and Events Show/hide News and Events menu items.Advice and Guidance Show/hide Advice and Guidance menu items. ![]()
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