Senator Calls on FTC, SEC to Crack Down on Location Data Misuse

February 14, 2024 - US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairs urging them to hold a data broker accountable for alleged misleading statements about its actions surrounding the use and sale of reproductive health location data.

Wyden’s concerns stemmed from a May 2023 investigation by Wall Street Journal reporters that revealed that an anti-abortion organization had used location data acquired from Near Intelligence, a data broker, to target anti-abortion messaging to people who had recently visited reproductive health clinics.

The organization, a nonprofit established by Wisconsin Right to Life called The Veritas Society, maintained the ad campaign through Recrue Media from November 2019 through the summer of 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Dobbs.

“My staff spoke with Steven Bogue, the Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Recrue Media on May 19, 2023, who revealed that to target these ads, his employees used Near’s website to draw a line around the building and parking lot of each targeted facility,” Wyden wrote.

“On May 26, 2023, my staff spoke with Near’s Chief Privacy Officer, Jay Angelo, who confirmed that, until the summer of 2022, the company did not have any technical controls in place to prevent its customers targeting people who visited sensitive facilities, such as reproductive health clinics.”

Further investigation determined that The Veritas Society had delivered 14.3 million ads to people who visited abortion clinics in 2020 alone. Near Intelligence has since faced scrutiny over its sale of location data to the US government without user consent, despite stating on its website that it did not sell data to “defense or governments.”

“The former executives that led Near during the period in which it engaged in these egregious violations of Americans’ privacy are now under criminal investigation, according to a statement made by the company’s lawyer during a December 11, 2023, bankruptcy hearing,” the letter noted.

“But prosecuting those individuals for engaging in financial fraud will not address Near’s corporate abuses, which harmed both the public and investors, nor protect consumers from further harm caused by the use of their data that was illegally collected, stored and sold by Near.”

With this in mind, Wyden urged the FTC to ensure that the location and device data held by Near pertaining to Americans is destroyed after its bankruptcy proceedings, rather than being sold off.

“Given the sensitivity of the ill-gotten data sold by Near, the FTC must act to protect consumers from further harm,” the letter continued.

While the SEC has already launched an investigation into Near, Wyden urged the SEC to expand its investigation to determine whether the company’s misleading statements to investigators about investigations by Congress constitute securities fraud.

“If a data broker could track Americans’ cell phones to help extremists target misinformation to people at hundreds of Planned Parenthood locations across the United States, a right-wing prosecutor could use that same information to put women in jail,” Wyden said in an accompanying press release.

“Federal watchdogs should hold the data broker accountable for abusing Americans’ private information. And Congress needs to step up as soon as possible to ensure extremist politicians can’t buy this kind of sensitive data without a warrant.”

Since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Dobbs, lawmakers and advocacy groups have been raising concerns about data privacy as it pertains to people seeking reproductive care, putting pressure on Congress to take action.