Lawmakers in Massachusetts are in the process of considering a bill that would ban the sale of mobile phone location data, which would make the state the first in the U.S. to restrict what has become a highly controversial and very lucrative industry.

Some states have certain restrictions on the selling of data or ask that companies inform citizens that their data might be used elsewhere with their say-so, but the practice of data brokering has always been a somewhat shady business.

People rarely understand that when they give permission for an app to use their location, what they do and where they go can be sold in data packages to brokers that then sell the information. For instance, in February this year, researchers discovered that data brokers in the U.S. were selling mental health data. Such practices have rankled lawmakers in Massachusetts.

The state’s legislature met last month to discuss the Location Shield Act, a proposal that would pretty much put an end to the collection and sale of location data that has been taken from mobile phones in Massachusetts. If passed, the law would also mean that law enforcement would need a warrant to access such location data. As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, in the past, the Department of Homeland Security as well as state and local police departments, have been avid customers of data brokers, thus bypassing the need for a warrant.

Even though the data is usually anonymized, it’s possible to identify a people’s home location and activities outside of their home. This, say the lawmakers trying to push through the proposal, puts certain people at risk. LGBTQ+ people could be discriminated against, while domestic violence survivors and religious minorities are also at risk.

A real-world example is a case from 2015, where women from states where abortion is illegal traveled to have the procedure in Massachusetts, after which data brokers ran ads selling real-time access from those phones to anti-abortion groups. As many critics of the practice have pointed out, anyone can buy such data, and some people are in the business of hate and violence.

The American Civil Liberties Union has welcomed the proposal. “Every day, unregulated data brokers buy and sell personal location data from apps on our cellphones, revealing where we live, work, play, and more,” it said on its website. “To protect our privacy, safety, access to abortion and other essential health care, Massachusetts needs to ban this practice now by passing the Location Shield Act.” Those who want to protect the business, however, have said an outright ban is severe, and states should simply make it clear to users that they can opt out of their data being sold.

The proposal’s backers are confident the bill will pass. “I have every reason to be optimistic that something will be happening in this session,” Democrat Senator Cindy Creem, who is sponsoring the bill, told the Journal.

Photo: Susanne Nilsson/Flickr