A recent lawsuit filed in New Jersey is shedding light on the concerning issue of the widespread availability of mobile tracking capabilities through commercial services that harvest location data from popular apps and websites. This lawsuit, brought by Delaware-based company Atlas Data Privacy Corp., alleges that consumer data brokers have been ignoring New Jersey’s Daniel’s Law, which allows certain individuals, including law enforcement officers, to have their personal information removed from commercial data brokers.
Daniel’s Law was enacted in 2020 after the tragic death of 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, who was killed in an attack targeting a federal judge, his mother. The law allows law enforcement, government personnel, judges, and their families to request the removal of their information from data brokers.
In the lawsuit, Atlas specifically targeted Babel Street, a technology company that offers a platform called LocateX, which enables customers to track individuals using their Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) or Mobile Advertising Identifier. Through Babel Street’s platform, customers can draw digital polygons around specific locations on a map and track the mobile devices that pass by these areas.
Atlas’s private investigator, hired to test various data broker tools, was able to use Babel Street to track the home addresses and daily movements of multiple New Jersey police officers. The investigator found that Babel Street also offered people-search services, which made it easier to track specific devices.
One of the concerning aspects uncovered in the lawsuit is the ease with which mobile location data can be accessed and used to track individuals. The investigator was able to track devices belonging to several plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, including pinpointing the locations of jurors and individuals visiting sensitive locations such as abortion clinics and places of worship.
The lawsuit highlights the potential risks involved in the widespread availability of mobile advertising data. This data, which is often collected and shared through bid requests in ad exchanges, can be enriched with personal information, creating detailed profiles of individuals’ daily movements and activities.
The lawsuit also raises questions about the privacy implications of MAIDs, which were originally intended to track individual mobile customers without using personally identifiable information. However, the data broker industry has created a market for enriched MAID data, which includes historical and personal information about individuals.
The lawsuit against Babel Street is just one example of the challenges posed by the unregulated tracking and selling of mobile location data. As states like Maryland and West Virginia pass laws to protect the privacy of certain individuals, including law enforcement officers and judges, the legal battle between data brokers and privacy advocates is likely to continue.
Experts warn that the sale of mobile location data poses significant privacy risks and can be used to track individuals for nefarious purposes. Disabling or deleting MAIDs on devices can help mitigate some of these risks, but the broader issue of data brokers selling personal information for profit remains a pressing concern.
As the debate over data privacy and regulation continues, it is clear that a comprehensive solution is needed to address the challenges posed by the unchecked collection and sale of mobile location data. Actions taken at the state level, such as enacting privacy laws similar to Daniel’s Law, are a step in the right direction, but more comprehensive legislation and oversight are necessary to protect individuals from the invasive tracking capabilities enabled by mobile advertising data.