According to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, pro-life organizations are using location data from a broker called Near Intelligence to specifically target visitors to about 600 family planning facilities in 48 U.S. states. This allowed them to run anti-abortion advertisements.
in the letter [PDF] Rep. Wyden (D-Ore.) made his case to the FTC and SEC, asking the watchdog agencies to investigate Near and “immediately destroy” all location data it holds on Americans.
“Nia is a scandal-plagued location data broker,” Wyden claimed.
The India-based company filed for bankruptcy in December and is selling its business, but there was no response. registerThis is your inquiry.
Wyden said a Wall Street Journal article in May prompted his office to investigate Near. At the time, Veritas Society, a nonprofit founded by the Wisconsin anti-abortion group Right to Life, used Nia’s geofencing data to target anti-abortion campaigns to people visiting family planning clinics. It was reported that mobile ads were being displayed.
The ad campaign ran from November 2019 to summer 2022, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, allowing states to criminalize abortion.
The ruling means that applications and services such as online pharmacies that sell the morning-after pill and fertility tracking apps collect a woman’s pregnancy status and location information and share that information with brokers, advertising networks and even law enforcement. has not been prevented. States where it is currently illegal to terminate a pregnancy, and other third parties.
The backdrop to all this is that the FTC is suing data brokers for selling sensitive location data, including visits to reproductive health clinics, that can be used to track and prosecute people seeking abortions. I warned you that this is a possibility.
The Veritas Association is said to have hired advertising agency Richrieux Media to run targeted anti-abortion ads.
According to Wyden’s Tuesday letter:
Recruit Media did not respond. registerThis is your inquiry. Neither the Wisconsin Right to Life nor the Veritas Association recognized it.
Nia also allegedly sold location data of U.S. citizens to Uncle Sam, including the Department of Defense, its intelligence agencies, and defense contractor AELIUS Exploitation Technologies.
”[Near chief privacy officer] Despite the company’s contract with AELIUS allowing resale of the data and explicitly mentioning the use of the data for national security-related purposes, Near revealed that the company had posted a statement on its website for years saying it did not sell data. “Defense or government,” Wyden’s letter argued.
The senator said that as of late last year, Near was still selling location data without the consent of U.S. residents, citing an Oct. 18 call with Angelo in which the privacy chief told the broker reportedly said it had stopped selling data on Europeans, it added.
Wyden’s letter said Near was already under investigation by the SEC in connection with the transfer of “illegal EU data twice a day” to the U.S. government.
Wyden is asking the SEC to expand its investigation into Nia and consider whether his comments amount to securities fraud. He also asked the FTC to intervene in Near’s bankruptcy proceedings to ensure that “all location and device data about Americans in Near’s possession is promptly destroyed and is not sold, including to other data brokers.” “I will.”
Wyden’s investigation comes in addition to a new report alleging that data brokers were tracking and then selling sensitive location information, as well as the government’s ability to buy people’s data without obtaining a warrant. The move comes as U.S. lawmakers are debating a bill that would ban it.
Congress and states need to ban police from buying location information from brokers and enact actual consumer data privacy laws.
“This is why members of Congress should vote to pass the Fourth Amendment Not for Sale Act on the floor tomorrow,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy advisor at the ACLU. register on wednesday.
The bill would close loopholes that allow government agencies to obtain people’s location data and other personal information without a warrant by purchasing them from data brokers.
“It affects issues such as abortion,” Hamadanchy argued. “Wyden’s revelations confirm that the data definitely exists and people are definitely using it. It’s not that big of a step for the attorneys general of Alabama and Idaho to think that.” [or other states where abortion is illegal] You will want to purchase this data to find out who is visiting family planning. ”
Adam Schwartz, EFF Privacy Litigation Director, said: register He echoed the ACLU’s concerns about data privacy.
“EFF is critical of Sen. Wyden’s work in exposing the privacy and other harms that data brokers collect and sell our location information to the highest bidders, including law enforcement and abortion opponents. Thank you for your continued leadership,” Schwartz declared.
“Now more than ever, we need Congress and states to ban law enforcement from buying location information from brokers and enact real consumer data privacy laws.” ®
