Mobilewalla

Mobilewalla, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Data broker
Founded	March 7, 2011;14 years ago (2011-03-07) in Singapore
Founder	Anindya Datta
Headquarters	Chamblee, Georgia
Website	mobilewalla.com

Mobilewalla is an American data broker company that collects and sells mobile device data. ^[1] It was founded in 2011 by Dr. Anindya Datta, a professor with the School of Computing, National University of Singapore.

During 2016 US elections, the firm targeted evangelicals with cell phone locations in real time of 6 months preceding the election. ^[2]

End of May 2020, the firm targeted George Floyd protesters located in New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Atlanta and published a report 2 weeks after showing demographics data: ethnicity, gender and age distribution. ^{[3] [4]} Datta proffered that the report was prepared to satisfy the curiosity of its employees, and not on behest of any law enforcement or public agency. ^[3] This however prompted various legislators to seek further clarifications with the company on the data itself. ^{[5] [3]}

In December 2024, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Mobilewalla alleging multiple violations of consumer protection laws. ^[6]

References

1. Kaye, Kate (2020-10-14). "Mobile's dirty little data secret under Washington's microscope". The Drum. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
2. "Firm That Tracked Protesters Targeted Evangelicals During 2016 Election". Vice. 2020-06-26. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
3. "Almost 17,000 Protesters Had No Idea A Tech Company Was Tracing Their Location". BuzzFeed News. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
4. Mobilewalla (June 17, 2020). "George Floyd Protester Demographics: Insights Across 4 Major US Cities" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2020.
5. "Mobile's dirty little data secret under Washington's microscope". The Drum. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
6. "FTC Takes Action Against Mobilewalla for Collecting and Selling Sensitive Location Data". Federal Trade Commission. 2024-12-03. Retrieved 2024-12-15.