FTC sues 'huge' data provider for selling info on abortion clinic location

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a major location data provider for allegedly selling data that could track people at abortion clinics or places of worship, Vice News reports.

As Vice News points out, the announcement from the agency signals a significant ramp up in the effort to identify as privacy violations around abortion and location data.

“Defendant’s violations are in connection with acquiring consumers’ precise geolocation data and selling the data in a format that allows entities to track the consumers’ movements to and from sensitive locations, including, among others, locations associated with medical care, reproductive health, religious worship, mental health temporary shelters, such as shelters for the homeless, domestic violence survivors, or other at risk populations, and addiction recovery,” the lawsuit reads.

“Where consumers seek out health care, receive counseling, or celebrate their faith is private information that shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder,” Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement published with the announcement. “The FTC is taking Kochava to court to protect people’s privacy and halt the sale of their sensitive geolocation information.”

WATCH: Morning Joe serves notice to Trump supporters what will happen to them if they riot over an arrest

Researcher Zach Edwards told Vice that Kochava may have been specifically targeted because the company is "huge" and has "more data broker partners than almost anyone in my opinion."

According to the lawsuit, a purchaser of data “could use an ordinary personal email address and describe the intended use simply as ‘business.’ The request would then be sent to Kochava for approval. Kochava has approved such requests in as little as 24 hours."