In a win for consumers, the Federal Trade Commission has prohibited X-Mode from selling consumer location data.

X-Mode and its successor, Outlogic, is a data broker that sold people’s precise location data without their consent, including “sensitive locations such as medical and reproductive health clinics, places of religious worship and domestic abuse shelters.” To make matters worse, the company failed to do enough to honor some users’ choice to opt out of tracking.

The FTC has reached an agreement with the company that will ban it from continuing the practice.

“Geolocation data can reveal not just where a person lives and whom they spend time with but also, for example, which medical treatments they seek and where they worship. The FTC’s action against X-Mode makes clear that businesses do not have free license to market and sell Americans’ sensitive location data,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “By securing a first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data, the FTC is continuing its critical work to protect Americans from intrusive data brokers and unchecked corporate surveillance.”

As part of the agreement, X-Mode must destroy all previously collected data, as well as any products built from that data, unless it can get customer consent. The company must also take precautions to deidentify data and ensure there is not sensitive information contained in it.

The company is also required to develop a method to ensure consumer consent has been given for the data it receives from suppliers, provide a way for customers to withdraw consent, and take steps to ensure that data cannot be identified with individuals in sensitive locations or settings that could result in distress, discrimination, or risk of harm.

The FTC’s action is “its first settlement with a data broker concerning the collection and sale of sensitive location information,” but hopefully won’t be its last.