Sports App TheScore Sharing Location Data with Advertisers
| Sports App TheScore Sharing Location Data with Advertisers | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Sports App TheScore Sharing Location Data with Advertisers |
| Location | United States |
| Date | 2018 |
| Solove Harm | Aggregation, Disclosure, Secondary Use, Surveillance |
| Information | Computer Device, Location, Behavioral |
| Threat Actors | Score Media and Gaming Inc. |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Usres of TheScore app |
| High Risk Groups | |
| Tangible Harms | |
A sports app TheScore was collecting location data telling users, it's only for content recommendation purposes but was found sharing this data with third-party advertisers.
Description
In 2018 sports app TheScore was found prompting users to grant access to their location for the purpose of giving the user content that is more relevant for them (local teams and players). It turned out, that the company also passed precise coordinates to 16 advertising and location companies Disclosure.
Since the company told the users, that their location data would only be used for content recommendations, it can be seen as Secondary Use.
Generally, constant collection of location data is an example of Surveillance, even if users are aware of the real purposes of it.
Targeted advertising is by far the most common use of the location information and ad businesses often claim, that they use only anonymized data. However, the amount of location data being collected reveals a lot about individuals, often including sensitive information, which makes it an example of Aggregation.