Developers: Beware of Ad Libraries that Betray Your Users’ Location Privacy

Advertising SDKs embedded in millions of mobile apps are collecting and sharing users' precise location data by default, according to EFF Deeplinks—often without app developers even realizing it. Several major advertising platforms, including InMobi which reaches more than two billion users, automatically send location information to ad networks that resell it to data brokers. That location data has been used for immigration enforcement investigations, monitoring union organizers, and tracking U.S. military personnel. Developers typically don't realize this is happening, and the default settings make it easy for location to leak through real-time bidding auctions to thousands of advertisers and data brokers.

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