Precise location data is one of the most sensitive categories of personal information. It can reveal a person’s home, work, daily patterns, and visits to sensitive places. The latest headlines make something painfully clear: if apps don’t rigorously control geolocation collection, metadata, and downstream sharing, the result is exposure at scale followed by fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage. There are a series of law firms like Pacific Trial Attorneys & Levi & Korsinsky that have picked up on the California Invasion of Privacy Act and how they can use old privacy laws written before the modern internet and use them for litigation purposes when businesses do not follow proper privacy hygiene.

Why location data risk is different

• Easy to re-identify: Even “anonymized” coordinates can be linked back to individuals when their home/work routines are visible.
• High harm potential: Leaks can reveal clinic, religious, LGBTQ+ center, or protest visits, creating safety and legal risks for users.
• Hard to contain downstream: SDKs, analytics, and ad-tech pipes can propagate coordinates far beyond your control.

Recent exposures: what happened, and why it matters

1) Partiful: EXIF metadata in profile photos

An investigation found that user-uploaded images on a popular event app were stored with embedded EXIF metadata intact, including precise GPS coordinates. That meant anyone able to fetch the raw file could potentially pinpoint where a profile photo was taken sometimes a user’s home or workplace. The company has since removed the metadata and pushed a fix, but the lesson stands: strip EXIF on upload always.

2) “Tea” app: viral growth, then data breaches

A women’s dating-safety app suffered successive breaches: first tens of thousands of images (including some government-ID selfies), then a far larger exposure of over a million private messages. Beyond the obvious privacy harm, the leaks showed how stored content and chat histories can include addresses, meeting locations, and movement patterns effectively turning chat logs into a location dossier. Rapid virality + weak storage controls = litigation and trust collapse. To make matters worse The Tea App was breached a second time and then threats of major class action privacy lawsuits started to break. Talk about losing momentum for a fast growing startup that had good intentions but the wrong execution.

3) Flo case: litigation gravity around sensitive data

Flo, a leading fertility app, previously resolved an FTC matter over data-sharing claims; more recently, class-action litigation tied to app SDK data access has resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements, and a separate verdict against a platform partner could run into the billions (subject to appeal). While not all of this is strictly “location,” it shows how sensitive data + opaque integrations can become a legal and financial sinkhole.

The location-data risk stack (where teams get burned)

1. EXIF metadata in media: Photos and videos can carry GPS coordinates unless scrubbed on upload and at rest.
2. SDK sprawl: Analytics/ads SDKs can siphon coordinates or infer location via IP/Wi-Fi—sometimes contrary to your notices.
3. Bidstream & brokers: Once data hits ad-tech, it can be repackaged and resold—hard to audit, harder to claw back.
4. Weak storage & access controls: Cloud misconfigurations (object stores, databases, logs) expose location and movement history.
5. Vague notices & permissions: If prompts don’t match practices, you’ll face deceptive-practice claims even if a breach never hits.

Playbook: reduce location risk in 30–60 days & Install Captain Compliance’s Privacy Software

1. Strip EXIF by default: Server-side scrubbing for all uploads; add a CI/CD test to block regressions.
2. Re-permission the app: Request OS-level location only when strictly needed (purpose binding); prefer coarse over precise; provide “off” or “approximate” modes.
3. Minimize & bound retention: No long-term location storage unless essential; auto-purge logs and backups.
4. SDK & partner review: Inventory every SDK. Disable location collection; contractually bar re-use; run leak tests on build artifacts and network calls.
5. Harden storage: Lock buckets, rotate keys, enforce least privilege, and enable object-level access logging with anomaly alerts.
6. Truth in UX: Align consent text, toggles, and privacy policy with what your code actually collects and transmits.
7. DPIA / PIA for location features: Document purposes, risks, mitigations, and residual risk before launch; re-review annually.
8. Practice incident response: Tabletop a geolocation leak scenario (press, regulators, user comms, takedowns) and pre-write notices.

Captain Compliance: operationalize privacy by design

• Consent & Preference Management: Geolocation-aware prompts, granular toggles, and dynamic disclosure pages.
• DSAR Automation: Identity verification, redaction, and secure delivery—crucial when location trails are requested or purged.
• RoPA/DPIA Workflows: Templates, risk scoring, approver routing for features touching precise location data.
• Tracker & SDK Governance: Scan builds for risky SDKs and enforce policies that block unauthorized data flows.

If you’re reading this and you’re a law firm, privacy consultant, marketing lead, or business owner reach out right away and book a demo with one of our privacy experts to run a free privacy audit and let us help protect your business from multi-million dollar fines & lawsuits.

Executive takeaways

• EXIF is the stealth risk. Scrub it every time, for every upload.
• SDKs are your blind spot. If you can’t describe exactly what an SDK sends off-device, assume it’s a liability.
• Consent ≠ cover. If your behavior differs from your prompts or policy, you’re inviting class actions.
• Install Captain Compliances Privacy Tools. The best thing to do is to be proactive. Captain Compliance the leader in data privacy technology can help protect your startup.