data brokers

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On June 3, 2025, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed HB 2008 into law to amend the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act,[1] the state’s comprehensive data privacy law. Among other items, effective January 1, 2026, the “sale” of two categories of personal data will be prohibited

  • Precise geolocation information that can pinpoint an individual or device with a 1,750-foot radius, absent some specific communications or utility-related exceptions
  • Personal data of anyone under sixteen years of age, provided that the data controller “has actual knowledge that, or willfully disregards whether, the consumer is under 16 years of age”[2]

The location data provision echoes a similar prohibition that was passed in Maryland last year.[3] 

Location data is considered “sensitive” because it can be readily collected from mobile devices or web browsing activities and can reveal a great deal about an individual’s habits, interests and movements. Beyond targeted advertising, anonymized location data can be a valuable source of alternative data for businesses gathering insights on competitors or consumer foot traffic or migration patterns and population growth.

As a result, the Oregon law – and the possibility of other similar state enactments that could restrict the sale of precise location data – represents an important development affecting data brokers and entities that use such data for location-based advertising and profiling and to create other data products and insights from location data. HB 2008’s definition of “sale” may potentially affect not just direct sales of precise location data but bundling and other licensing arrangements, subject to certain exceptions and uses. The new law will also add to customers’ due diligence process examining their data vendors’ collection practices.

On June 15, 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill, cosponsored by a host of other Democratic and independent Senators, the “Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2022,” which, subject to a few exceptions, would, among other things, prohibit the selling, sharing or transferring location data and health data. The bill gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rulemaking and enforcement authority for violations of the law and also grants state attorneys general the right to bring actions; notably, the law would also give a private right of action to persons adversely affected by a violation of the proposed law.

On December 9, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Google will block the data broker X-Mode Social Inc. (“X-Mode”) from collecting location data from iPhone and Android users. Apple and Google have reportedly informed app developers to remove the X-Mode social tracking SDK from all of their apps within a short period of time or risk removal from the platforms’ app stores.  This action apparently was prompted by reports that X-Mode was selling location data to certain defense contractors and government entities.

The WSJ report suggests that Apple and Google notified Senator Ron Wyden about this action.  Senator Wyden and a group of other Senators have been soliciting government inquiries over the last several months into the sale of location data to government contractors and agencies. It is Senator Wyden’s position that such sales of users’ location data by commercial data brokers to government entities are unlawful without a warrant (citing the Supreme Court case, Carpenter v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 2206 (2018), which held that the acquisition of cell-site location information was a Fourth Amendment search).

Senator Wyden’s scrutiny over such practices does not seem to be limited to sale of location data to government sources, but more so toward the wider data tracking ecosystem. He was one of the senators that earlier this year sent a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph J. Simons urging the agency to investigate whether analytics firm Yodlee’s financial data collection practices were violating the FTC Act (a request which led to at least one civil investigative demand being issued by the FTC to Yodlee and a putative class action suit over such practices). In the WSJ article, Wyden is quoted as stating: “Apple and Google deserve credit for doing the right thing and exiling X-Mode Social, the most high-profile tracking company, from their app stores. But there’s still far more work to be done to protect Americans’ privacy, including rooting out the many other data brokers that are siphoning data from Americans’ phones.”