New Delhi: A Bengaluru-based mobile advertising firm, InMobi, has been fined $950,000 (Rs 6 cr approx.) by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for tracking the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers, including children, without their knowledge or permission.
InMobi had basically arranged location-targeting technology on all devices, irrespective of whether or not the users had given their consent. The company delivered location targeted ads to children, over children’s apps, which violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The FTC had earlier imposed a penalty of $4 million (Rs. 27.14 cr approx.), but later suspended it to $950,000 (Rs. 6.4 cr approx.) considering the financial condition of the company.
Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement said, “InMobi tracked the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers, including children, without their consent, in many cases totally ignoring consumers’ express privacy preferences.” She added, “This settlement ensures that InMobi will honor consumers’ privacy choices in the future, and will be held accountable for keeping their privacy promises.”
FTC ordered InMobi to collect consent of parents before tracking children. The order added that all existing records of children collected without their consent are to be destroyed. Thecompany is strictly told not to misrepresent its tracking practices, and make them known to consumers. Also all existing data gathered without consent must be deleted.
"With best intentions to adhere to COPPA requirements, InMobi implemented a process to exclude any publisher's site or app identified as a COPPA app from interest-based, behavioural advertising. During the investigation by FTC, InMobi discovered that there was a technical error at InMobi's end that led to the process not being correctly implemented in all cases,” InMobi said a statement.
InMobi was founded in India in 2007 and is a Singapore-based company. Started by four alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT)—Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, and Amit Gupta—the company is backed by investors like Japan’s SoftBank and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
