The settlement is the FTC’s first ban on selling sensitive location data.
The Biden administration stopped a company from selling data on people’s medical visits on Tuesday, its first settlement on a privacy issue that has many Americans concerned about who can see their most sensitive personal data — particularly visits to abortion providers.
After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it had reached a settlement with Outlogic, a location data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, which had been collecting information on people’s visits to medical centers.
The settlement is the first major enforcement on location data since a 2022 executive order directed the government to ramp up privacy protections for anyone seeking an abortion.
The FTC has been cracking down on health privacy violations after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion when it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A Biden executive order in July 2022 directed federal agencies to protect people’s privacy related to reproductive health care services.
You had me until the completely assinine assertion that the erosion of privacy has ANYTHING to do with email and internet searches… That is a fucking pathetically ignorant view.
The internet doesn’t introduce feudalism. Email doesn’t violate privacy. The ONLY thing that has brought this about is capitalism and corporations’ endless hunt for more capital.
There is money in violating privacy, and the law failed to keep up. Evil capitalists capitalizing on holes in the law has NOTHING to do with ANY specific technology.
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