By Debra Cassens Weiss
The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against data broker Kochava Inc. on Monday that seeks to block the company’s sales of geolocation data from mobile devices that could be used to track visits to abortion clinics and other sensitive locations.
The lawsuit alleges that Kochava violated Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, which bans unfair or deceptive practices that affect commerce. According to the suit, acts are unfair under Section 5 if they cause or are likely to cause substantial injury to consumers that consumers can’t reasonably avoid themselves and if the injury is not outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or competition.
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