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All of them described Life360 as one of the largest sources of data for the industry.
There are potentially more companies that benefit from Life360s data based on those partners customers.
Hulls added that the company would be supportive of legislation that would require public disclosure of such partners.
X-Mode and SafeGraph didnt respond to requests for comment.
The policy also applies to any companies that Life360s customers share data with, he said.
These third parties may use the de-identified information for any purpose.
The former X-Mode engineer said that the company also received raw data from Life360.
The company relies on its customers to obfuscate that data based on their specific applications, Hulls added.
In 2016, the companymade $693,000from selling data it collected.
In 2019, the companypurchased ZenScreen, a family screen-time monitoring app.
Hulls said Life360 has no plans to sell data from Jiobit devices or its digital safety services.
Hulls said the company doesnt have plans to sell data from Tile devices.
That doesnt mean that there arent ways that other people are harmed with this data.
Hulls said that Life360 doesnt share users private information with insurers in ways that could affect insurance rates.
The company says these features havesaved lives.
There is no indication that Life360 was involved in this incident.
Many apps that use location data allow users to grant access only while its in use.
Hulls said this description was directionally accurate, saying it only applied to certain partners and use cases.
But Life360 collects its data directly from the app and provides it to data brokers through its own servers.
Apples and Googles app stores have no way of detecting this transfer of location data to a third party.
This is completely unrelated.
Google didnt comment on why Life360 was able to sell data this way despite itspolicy against selling location data.
The data sold still includes a devices mobile advertising ID and latitude and longitude coordinates.
And privacy experts note that mobile advertising IDs are more valuable than identifiers like names.
This code can be used to track and follow you across many life situations, Christl said.
As such, it is a much better identifier than a name.
Some of Life360s partners have faced controversy in the past over how they handle data and privacy.
In August, X-Mode was purchased by intellectual property intelligence firm Digital Envoy and rebranded as Outlogic.
The CDC didnt respond to requests for comment.
Outlets includingThe New York TimesandNBC Newsreceived location data from Cuebiq for their analyses.
Cuebiqs Daddi said the companys data has helped in the aftermath of natural disasters and public health crises.
Safety vs. Privacy
Life360 has positioned itself as the leading digital safety brand for families.
But experts say families who use it are not necessarily thinking about their digital security.
Life360 has facedconcerns over privacyin the past.
Samira Madi, an 18-year-old student in Texas, started using Life360 when she was 15.
I had no idea it would be passed around this way, Madi said in an email.
This article wasoriginally published on The Markupand was republished under theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeslicense.
