Your phone knows you’re at the doctor, and data brokers are profiting from it

Your phone knows you're at the doctor, and data brokers do, too — then profit from it

Data brokers track patients' whereabouts via their smartphones’ location data, connecting it with other data gathered about them, and then drawing inferences about their health struggles to sell to companies hawking unproven treatments.

Your Phone Knows You’re at the Doctor, and Data Brokers Do, Too — Then Profit From It

The Federal Trade Commission told a data company it could no longer sell data it collected from hundreds of millions of Americans’ mobile devices when people visited hospitals, dialysis clinics, or abortion clinics. But little is stopping other companies from doing so. In the absence of federal protections, some states are passing their own rules.

Your phone knows you’re at the doctor, and data brokers are profiting from it

Privacy and legal experts want more states or Congress to ban advertisers from tracking Americans’ locations via their phones.