Google bans SafeGraph, the company that sold user location data

The company collected user location data and then sold it

Google has banned SafeGraph, a company that collected user location data on Android and sold it for COVID-19 mapping.

They were one of the many companies that collected location data and aggregated it for organisations such as the Center of Disease Control.

As reported on by Motherboard, Google gave the company seven days to remove their SDK (Software Development Kit) from the app store in June. The geolocation data collected from users was through plug-ins in other apps.

Though the company claims the data is anonymized, the report shows that location datasets can still reveal details that people may not want going public. Many users were also not aware of how their data is going to be used.

Last year, the publication Motherboard bought a small set of location data for $200 to see how easy it was to obtain. The details included points of interest for the areas that were mapped and specific locations that the user's went to.

Speaking with The Verge, Sen. Ron Wyden, the sponsor of a bill that will restrict location gathering apps, said that, "This is the right move by Google, but they and Apple need to do more than play whack-a-mole with apps that sell Americans’ location information. These companies need a real plan to protect users’ privacy and safety from these malicious apps."