Millions of Americans' location data compromised in apparent hack

Russian hackers have gotten the location data of millions of people across the world. — Getty Images

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A new hack and data breach by Russian cybercriminals has threatened the private information of millions of people around the world. Gravy Analytics, one of the largest companies that tracks peoples’ data through smartphone location data collected from widely used mobile apps like games and dating apps, was hacked last week.

The full scale of the breach is not yet known. However, an alleged hacker posted a gigabyte of data on a Russian-language cybercrime forum last week and threatened to share terabytes more unless Gravy Analytics paid a ransom.

The amount of the ransom was not specified and the post has since been removed, raising suspicion among analysts that Gravy complied.

Cybersecurity experts who downloaded the information before it was removed and analyzed it have said the hack appears authentic.

Gravy’s parent company, Unacast, which has an office in Norway, has not publicly acknowledged the breach in America. However, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported on Saturday, Jan. 11, that it had disclosed the breach to Norway’s data protection authorities as required under the country’s law.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission accused Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary, Venntel, of illegally collecting and selling Americans’ location data. The FTC said some people gravy tracked were monitored going into sensitive locations like government buildings, health clinics and places of worship.

Shea Taylor (Producer) and Michael Edwards (Video Editor) contributed to this report.