• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 3, 2022

Mobile data broker Kochava is urging a federal judge to throw out a class-action complaint brought by a California man who accuses the company of violating state wiretapping laws.

David Greenley sued the company soon after the Federal Trade Commission claimed Kochava engaged in an unfair business practice by allegedly selling location data -- including information that could reveal visits to sensitive locales like abortion clinics.

In papers filed Wednesday, Kochava urges U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant in San Diego to dismiss the suit, arguing that Greenley doesn't show how Kochava's alleged activity would have affected him.

“Plaintiff cannot show a single instance of an allegedly intercepted communication or that Kochava actually tracked plaintiff to any sensitive locations,” the company writes.

The company adds that Greenley “offers no specific facts about himself or other class members, or their alleged injuries,” and that he “provides no details whatsoever as to what location information Kochava allegedly collected from them.”

Kochava -- which allegedly obtains data that originated from mobile apps -- also argues that Greenley allowed app developers to collect his location data.

The company also says it collects latitude and longitude, IP addresses and mobile advertising identifiers (pseudonymous alphanumeric strings), but doesn't identify the consumer associated with the identifier.

But Greenley, as well as the FTC, say geolocation data, when combined with mobile advertising identifiers, can be enough to identify individuals.

The FTC said in its complaint against Kochava that data brokers sometimes advertise the ability to match mobile identifiers with names and physical addresses.

What's more, even without that type of service, location data alone can be used to identify people. For example, a mobile device is typically located at the owner's home address overnight, the FTC alleged.

Kochava is separately asking a federal judge in Idaho to dismiss the FTC's lawsuit.