The Prohibition on the Use, Sale, or Disclosure of Sensitive Location Data We commend the Commission for highlighting the significant harms caused by the use, sale, and disclosure of sensitive location data and for taking action against X-Mode to limit these harms. [...] The proposed order rightfully prohibits the sale, use, or disclosure of sensitive location data but states that these prohibitions “do not apply if Respondents: (i) use Sensitive Location Data to convert such data into data that (a) is not Sensitive Location Data or (b) is not Location Data[.]”11 This could allow X- Mode to use the sensitive location data at the center of the Commission’s complain. [...] Indeed, X-Mode has a presence around the globe and claims to be one of the largest providers of location data in the UK.25 The surveillance model espoused by data brokers like X-Mode targeting consumers in the United States does not stop at the water’s edge; neither should the protections for those consumers. [...] Just as with location data collected inside the United States, the fact that a data broker sells precise location data collected outside the United States to government contractors for national security purposes is material to an American consumer’s decision to grant or revoke location permissions to various apps when traveling or living outside the United States (and indeed, material to the decis. [...] Additionally, we encourage the Commission to revise the order to remove the distinction between sensitive and non-sensitive location data or, at a minimum, to broaden the scope of location data deemed sensitive; to remove exception (i) in Section II to tighten the prohibition on the use, sale, or disclosure of sensitive location; to rely on data minimization requirements rather than individual con.
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- United States of America
