InMobi fined $950,000 for tracking consumer location without consent

The mobile advertising firm InMobi, which is backed by SoftBank, will have to pay $950,000 in civil penalties and implement a comprehensive privacy program so that it can settle the case that federal trade commission has put up against it. As per FCT, it deceptively tracked locations of "hundreds of millions of consumers - including children - without their knowledge or consent" so that it could serve geo-targeted advertising.

As per ETtech, a statement by FTC noted that as per the settlement, InMobi is subject to a $4 million penalty; however, the agency suspended the fine to $950,000 because of its financial condition.

As per the complaint, InMobi was tracking consumers' location without asking for their consent and even when consumers had actually denied it the permission.

"InMobi created a database built on information collected from consumers who allowed the company access to their geo-location information, combining that data with the wireless networks they were near to document the physical location of wireless networks themselves. InMobi then would use that database to infer the physical location of consumers based on the networks they were near, even when consumers had turned off location collection on their device." FTC said in a statement.

The agency added that InMobi's software also tracked location in thousands of apps "that were clearly directed at children, in spite of promising that it did not do so". While doing this, it also violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

In addition to the fine, InMobi is also directed to set up a comprehensive privacy program that will be independently audited every two years for coming two decades.

InMobi, on the other hand, has said that it discovered technical error at its end that led to this. It also said that it promptly notified the FTC about this on discovering it, making it clear that this was not deliberate.

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