Google Bans SafeGraph for Selling User Location Data

In the US, Google has banned foot traffic insights firm SafeGraph from its Playstore, for collecting and selling smartphone users' location data.

SafeGraph provides data about physical locations, for use in machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence. The firm, whose investors include former head of Saudi intelligence Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, sells its data to government bodies and a wide range of industries, as well as on the open market.

The ban by Google means that developers must delete SafeGraph's location gathering code or software development kit (SDK) from their own apps within seven days. According to online publication Motherboard, these apps have been able to track the physical location of their users, and SafeGraph could then sell the resulting data - which included details of where people went after Covid lockdowns were relaxed.

Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal reported that a similar company called X-Mode, which Google banned after Motherboard revealed it collected information from a Muslim prayer app and has US military contractors among its customers, has found a way to continue to harvest location information from apps. The firm now provides tools to individual app developers to collect the location data themselves, and they then send it to X-Mode.

Senator Ron Wyden is part of a group which has reintroduced in the House and Senate the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act (GPS Act). If passed, this will require law-enforcement to obtain a warrant before acquiring geolocation information for an American citizen. Keith Chu, Senator Wyden's Communications Director, told Motherboard that when his office pressed Apple and Google to take action against X-Mode, it also reported SafeGraph to the tech giants. Chu added that Wyden's office had tried to contact SafeGraph in June, July, and twice in August last year, but has never received a response.

Web sites: www.google.com and www.safegraph.com .