The FTC typically takes years to investigate before writing up a complaint. But in a post-Dobbs world, the commission is acting with a lot more urgency.

The FTC seems serious about protecting user data. It’s looking to create new rules on “commercial surveillance,” and it warned that it will crack down on companies and data brokers that misuse health data. Now it’s following through on that promise.

• The FTC is suing data broker Kochava for allegedly selling location data that could track movements to domestic violence centers, reproductive health clinics and other sensitive places.
• The FTC found it was possible to identify device owners who visited sensitive locations. And until at least June, when the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs, Kochava users had access to a portion of that data with timestamped location information.

Notable here is the speed with which the FTC filed the complaint, especially compared to some of its recent lawsuits.

• For example, the FTC sued Meta for its acquisition of Within a full year after the purchase was announced, and it sued Walmart in June for allegedly ignoring fraud on its money transfer service from 2013 to 2018.
• Of course, the FTC may have already been investigating Kochava for a long time; perhaps Roe v. Wade being overturned just sped up the timetable, Protocol Policy editor Kate Cox told me.

The FTC has already made it clear that companies misusing sensitive health data would face consequences. But it seems those consequences could come sooner than people think.

— Sarah Roach