Jeff John Roberts:
On paper, the order looks like stern stuff but, in practice, it’s hard to see how this amounts to real punishment. Even though Geidl did something deeply unethical, compromising the privacy of tens of millions of people, he will not pay a cent for his misdeeds.
Bullshit. And:
The FTC said earlier that it didn’t seek financial restitution because the app was free. The agency’s justification is unsatisfying, however, because it doesn’t acknowledge that Geidl must have earned earned income by selling users’ geolocation. A better approach would have been to strip him of any profits he made through the app, and also name-and-shame the advertisers who bought the information from him.
Agreed. I hate this shit where hands are barely even slapped for major privacy violations.