The article is about Norway, and there are laws against merely possessing data, namely the GDPR. To be specific, "merely possessing" private data (the granular movement data would qualify) by companies for business purposes is illegal by default - there are many options that give a legal basis for processing, and many of them do not require the user's consent, but it's upon the company to demonstrate what gives them the permission to do that, and having no justification (if the company "just has it") means that the processing is illegal. And even if the company has a legitimate reason for processing as such, doing so "without your knowledge" is generally illegal, as even where consent is not required, they are required to inform the data subject about the purposes of processing their private data.

It's not about selling data - purchasing the data or having it or using it also are covered.