Data Broker Hack Exposes Location Info From Millions of iPhone Users

Data broker Gravy Analytics has been hacked, and location information from millions of iPhone and Android users is at risk, reports TechCrunch. Gravy Analytics' parent company Unacast disclosed the data breach earlier this month [PDF], and said that its AWS cloud storage environment had been accessed by an unauthorized person using a "misappropriated access key."

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"Some files" were obtained, and preliminary findings suggest those files "could contain personal data" collected from users of third-party services that use Gravy Analytics. According to 404Media, hackers are claiming to have customer lists and location data from smartphones that shows peoples' precise movements, with millions of users affected. Some of that data, which does indeed include the historical location of smartphones, has been published on private forums.

Gravy Analytics says that it tracks more than a billion devices around the world daily, and security researchers that saw a sample of the data collected by Gravy Analytics confirmed that the information can be used to track a person's recent locations, with no anonymization.

In December, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibited Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel from selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service. The FTC warned that the two companies exposed consumers to privacy harms that could include disclosure of health information, political activity, and religious practices, and put people at risk of stigma, discrimination, violence and other harms.

The order required Gravy Analytics to delete all historic location data and any data products developed using data collected from consumers, but it was apparently too late because the company's systems had likely already been breached at the time.

Gravy Analytics collects location data through a real-time ad bidding process that allows companies competing to buy an ad to see customer IP address and more precise location data if enabled. Gravy Analytics' database had location data from ‌iPhone‌ apps that include FlightRadar, Grindr, and Tinder, and while the apps did not have a direct relationship with the data broker, user location information was collected through their ads.

Turning off app tracking in the Privacy and Security section of the ‌iPhone‌'s Settings app keeps ads from being able to obtain a unique device identifier to link location data to a specific device, and preventing apps from using precise location data is also a way to preserve more privacy.

Baptiste Robert, CEO of security firm Predicta Lab, told TechCrunch that ‌iPhone‌ users that had app tracking disabled did not have their data shared.

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Top Rated Comments

john123 Avatar
4 weeks ago
I feel like this story ignores the larger point.

Gravy is far from the only player in this market. Who you are and where you’ve been is data that’s collected, harvested, and used all the time.

A hack means that more people have access to that data who shouldn’t. Yeah, that’s not good. But there are thousands of companies that have some of this data on you because they collected it — or paid for it — “legally.” That should be disconcerting for many people.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Razorpit Avatar
4 weeks ago
In other words, ads are far more of a nuisance than we ever imagined possible.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rp2011 Avatar
4 weeks ago
It's only a matter of time until personal data collection becomes illegal to collect. It has been shown time and again that none of them can protect the user and, on the contrary, do a lot of harm.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DrPeril Avatar
4 weeks ago
> apps that include FlightRadar, Grindr, and Tinder

Ok... what about a complete list of Apps so people can at least gain some idea of their level of exposure...
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
4 weeks ago

Turning off app tracking in the Privacy and Security section of the iPhone's Settings app keeps ads from being able to obtain a unique device identifier to link location data to a specific device, and preventing apps from using precise location data is also a way to preserve more privacy.
I also highly recommend people get an ad and tracker blocking DNS set up to further block such things on all devices and websites. The easiest is NextDNS ('https://nextdns.io/?from=3s7h3d98'), which is the best $20/year I spend probably. Other more complex solutions are PiHole or AdGuard Home.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
novagamer Avatar
4 weeks ago
Surely this very website would never use third party telemetry or click tracker embeddings via referrals and advertisements which wind up as part of these data sets…once sold and resold (and resold…)

Pushback starts with people choosing not to use these invasive technologies which are almost never necessary, not the users.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)