Amazon Secretly Tracks Consumers’ Location Data Through Third-Party Mobile Apps, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit out of California alleges Amazon has secretly embedded software in third-party mobile apps to track and sell data about consumers’ whereabouts.

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The 12-page lawsuit claims Amazon has contracted with tens of thousands of app developers to have its computer code—known as the Amazon Ads software development kit (SDK)—integrated into their mobile apps, allowing the e-commerce giant to siphon sensitive data from consumers’ mobile devices.

According to the case, Amazon collects “incredibly sensitive” information from millions of unsuspecting individuals to use and sell for advertising purposes, including non-anonymized, timestamped geolocation data that exposes where a consumer lives, works and otherwise frequents.

“Amazon’s practice is far from inconsequential,” the suit contends. “Its surreptitious and routine collection of precise geolocation data can reveal locations associated with medical care, reproductive health, religious worship, mental health, and temporary shelters such as shelters for the homeless, domestic violence survivors, or other at-risk populations, and addiction recovery centers.”

Per the filing, Amazon’s alleged data collection practices enable the company and its advertising partners to build a comprehensive profile of each consumer that includes their identity and details about their online and in-person activities.

Users are unaware when the app they’re interacting with has embedded the Amazon SDK and are never asked to consent to having their highly sensitive data sent to Amazon, the complaint alleges.

“Indeed, when enabling location services within an app—for example a utility tool or a news app that necessarily requires the consumer to share his or her location with the app—the consumer grants consent for only the mobile app to use his or her location,” the case says.

The suit contends that Amazon has violated California privacy laws by monitoring and collecting information about residents through third-party apps such as NewsBreak and Speedtest by Ookla.

The lawsuit looks to represent any California residents who downloaded and used an app on their mobile device that used the Amazon Ads SDK and did not publicly disclose “Amazon Ads” in any of its notices or disclosures.

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