InMobi Settles FTC Allegations of Collecting Consumer Location Data Without Consent

Mobile advertising company InMobi will pay $950,000 in civil penalties and institute a comprehensive privacy program, settling FTC allegations the Singapore-based company tracked locations of hundreds of millions of consumers without their knowledge or consent -- including children without parental consent -- in an effort to provide geo-targeted ads, said the commission Wednesday in a news release. Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the stipulated order and refer the complaint to DOJ, which filed both documents with the District Court for the Northern District of California. InMobi has an ad network that reaches more than 1 billion devices globally through thousands of popular apps and can serve those ads based on consumers' locations, the release said. The FTC alleged the company "misrepresented that its advertising software would only track consumers' locations when they opted in and in a manner consistent with their device's privacy settings." But InMobi tracked consumers even when they denied permission to access their locations, FTC said. The commission also alleged the company violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from apps directed at children "in spite of promising that it did not do so," the release said. The agency said the settlement subjected InMobi to a $4 million civil penalty, but it was reduced to $950,000 because of the company's financial condition. InMobi also must delete all data collected from children and is prohibited from further violating COPPA. The company also needs to get express consent from consumers to collect their location data and must delete any information from consumers who didn't consent, the commission said. InMobi will implement a comprehensive privacy program that will be audited every two years for the next two decades, the FTC said. The company emailed that it has "implemented a process to exclude any publisher’s site or app identified as a COPPA app from interest-based, behavioral advertising." During the FTC's investigation, the company said it "discovered" a "technical error" on its end that resulted in some COPPA sites being served with interest-based campaigns on its network. "InMobi promptly notified the FTC of this issue as soon as it was discovered and has made it clear from the outset that this was by no way means deliberate," it said, saying it has been compliant. The company said it would only use Wi-Fi information to serve location-based targeted ad campaigns when a user "has authorized the app to collect and transmit the same."