Your Location Data Is Used for More Than Just Ads

Hello all, and happy Thursday! 

When it comes to data privacy and data privacy regulations, a pretty common refrain is: “I don’t care if these companies are tracking me. All they’re doing is advertising stuff to me, and if I have to see advertisements anyways, I’d rather they be relevant.”  

Let’s set aside the fact that not everybody feels this way, or the fact that you wouldn’t want sensitive information like your health data being used for advertising. 

Data is like toothpaste—once it’s out of the tube, it’s not going back in. Once your data is out in the world, it’s relatively easy for it to find its way into the hands of people who want to use it for more than just advertising. 

Just recently, the FBI admitted that it purchased data originally intended for advertising. Specifically, it purchased the locations of smartphone users. You might not care if your data is used to figure out which brand of soda people in your area like more, but you probably do care about your data being used by federal agencies for some classified purpose.  

Federal agencies buying personal data isn’t anything new; the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, and the Defense Intelligence Agency regularly do so. This practice comes in response to a relatively recent Supreme Court decision (Carpenter v. United States) holding that the warrantless acquisition of location data violated the Fourth Amendment. Now, agencies purchase consumer data as a workaround to securing a warrant. 

Data privacy regulations thankfully prevent just anybody from buying user data willy-nilly—users need to be informed and given the choice to opt-in or out (depending on the regulation). However, most U.S. regulations create exemptions for federal agencies, law enforcement, and the like, which is a practice that has long attracted criticism from data privacy advocacy groups.  

It goes to show that even with regulation, your data isn’t just being used for advertising. It may be the case that total privacy isn’t possible in the digital world. More privacy, however, is very achievable. 

Best, 

Arlo 

P.S. The Osano team will be attending the International Association of Privacy Professional’s (IAPP’S) Global Privacy Summit in Washington D.C. this April fourth and fifth! If you’ll be attending as well, come by booth 318 to ask questions, talk about all things data privacy, or just say hi. 

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