Tag: inmobi

Illegal location tracking leads to massive fine for InMobi

InMobi has agreed to settle charges from US FTC and will pay nearly $1 million in penalties.

Illegal location tracking charges have been placed against Indian-based mobile advertising company InMobi by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The mobile ad network is subject to a $4 million fine by the FTC for deceptively tracking the locations of consumers. However, the fine was lowered to $950,000, due to the company’s financial condition.

Hundreds of millions of consumers were tracked, including children.

The FTC alleges that InMobi illegally tracked consumers’ locations and used this information for behaviorally targeted advertising. InMobi’s advertising software tracked the locations of consumer’s when they opted in, but not always in accordance with their device’s privacy settings. The company was actually tracking the locations of consumers regardless of whether or not the apps using the company’s software asked the consumer’s permission. Even when consumer denied permission to access their location information, they were tracked anyway.

Illegal Location TrackingTo make matters worse, according to the FTC, InMobi also violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It did so by collecting information from applications that were directed at children, even though InMobi promised that it didn’t.

What the FTC discovered was that InMobi developed a database built on the information the company gathered from consumers who allowed InMobi to access their geolocation data. This data was combined with the wireless networks that were near consumers in order to document the physical location of the actual wireless networks. The company then used that database to deduce the consumer’s physical location based on the networks they were close to. This occurred even when they had the location collection feature of their device turned off.

In addition to its illegal location tracking fine, InMobi must adhere to stiff rules.

Aside from paying the $950,000 fine, InMobi must also delete all the data it collected from children. The company will be prohibited from collecting the location information from consumers without their express consent. They will also be required to honor the location privacy settings of their consumers. Additionally, information collected without consent must also be deleted.

The settlement resulting from the illegal location tracking fiasco will also require InMobi to set up a comprehensive privacy program. For the next 20 years, this privacy program will be independently audited every two years.

Mobile ad startup InMobi is laying off almost 10 percent of its staff

The iconic smartphone advertising company is letting about 100 people go out of around 1,000 total employees.

InMobi, a mobile ad company that has been seen as a considerable Indian success story that has been drawing leading talent and investors throughout the tech industry has now revealed that it is laying off a massive ten percent of its staff.

The cutbacks are going to affect approximately 100 people out of the total staff of 1,000 company employees.

This is the most recent indicator that the mobile ad network is finding it increasingly challenging to be able to survive the staggering competition from giants such as Facebook and Google. The startup has been in direct competition with those massive players when it comes to the data-driven mobile marketing arena. InMobi had been maintaining great hopes for their products, but the startup has not been meeting its targets when it comes to revenue, moreover the burn rates don’t appear to be decreasing, say many media reports.

The mobile ad network has received venture funding from exceptionally powerful top investors.

Mobile Ad Startup layoffsAmong those investors are Sherpalo Ventures from Caulfield & Byers and Ram Shiram, and Softbank from Japan. In 2011, it was the recipient of $200 million from SoftBank, bringing it to the point of being a startup that had more than $1 billion as its market cap.

According to an anonymous source who has knowledge of the latest developments at InMobi, “Investors have told them (InMobi) to reduce costs,” adding that “The layoffs have happened from the senior executive level to the programmer ranks.”

A spokesperson was reported to have said in an email query response that employees have left for a range of different purposes, such as starting their own ventures or moving forward with various career aspirations. That individual explained about the mobile ad network that “We also let go of a few people for performance reasons each year.” That person stated that the startup has a strategy in place for 2016 for driving growth, which included the hiring of 40 additional employees and that it had issued offers for more than 48 management and engineering grads.