The facts
In January 2024, the FTC barred X-Mode Social and its successor Outlogic from sharing or selling sensitive location data. The settlement covered allegations that precise location pings could show visits to medical facilities, religious sites, and domestic-abuse shelters.
That is not a sci-fi plot. That is a federal order about a company treating the map of your life as inventory.
Our take
“Personalization” sounds like a nicer playlist. A commercial log of where you go is a different animal. Clinics. Churches. The shelter. Sold.
The industry talks like you are a device. Your Tuesday is a signal. A deeply fucked practice becomes a “data solution.” If the pitch needs a euphemism to get through a dinner party, the pitch is the problem.
Maps need to know where you are. That is not the fight. The fight is a broker packing up the most intimate patterns in a person’s week and putting them on a shelf. You did not meaningfully agree to that. You tapped Allow because the weather app would not open.
