Apple’s revised privacy policy states: “To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services.”
Boulton reports, “This has Reps. Markey and Barton, who co-chair the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, concerned. ‘Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned about the impact the collection of such data could have on the privacy of Apple’s customers,’ the Congressmen wrote in the letter.”
Boulton reports, “The lawmakers want to better understand Apple’s data collection practices and their potential impact on consumers, as well as public policy implications of the data usage.”
Full article, including Markey’s and Barton’s questions, for which they demand answers from Apple by July 12, here.
WTF ?
I thought Barton worked for BP.
I font mind seeing ads that are actually relevant to me, rather than ads that are not.
I have no problem with Apple telling some advertiser, here is a guy driving down that street, wanna show ad with special at a store on that street?
Sure…. Just don’t link my name.
These two congressthings should go back to what they do best – Taking bribes (sorry, donations).
Carry on Apple.
@theloniousMac Why is either/or the only possibility in your mind instead of neither/nor? Why should I want or accept ANYONE spying on my daily activities, Apple included? Apple wants privacy for their device prototypes but not for Apple customers? Shame on them!
@FutureMedia @critic @Exregis You can turn off the location-based advertisements. You CAN NOT OPT OUT of Apple’s tracking you and sharing that information with 3rd parties, according to its newly changed Privacy Policy.
Apple: Here’s How to Opt Out of Our Targeted Ads (But Not Our Location Tracking) — All Things Digital — Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100621/apple-heres-how-to-opt-out-of-our-targeted-ads-but-not-our-location-tracking/ Considering Steve Jobs’ hypocritical comments about privacy at the All Things Digital conference (Ask in plain English, Ask again, Keep asking until they tell you to stop asking), it’s time to realize that Apple is no longer just the manufacturer of the best hardware and software on the planet. Apple is now an ADVERTISING company. I’ve been an active Mac enthusiast since 2002, but the Apple-can-do-no-wrong attitude is now outdated. You won’t convince me that corporate masters, including Apple, are any less evil than governmental tyrants.
The lawmakers in question do not have to know anything about technology. The just need to know the Bill of Rights.
Barton trying to deflect critisism for taking bribes from big oil and trying to divert negative backlash of his BP apology on the rebulican big bussiness interests by focusing on Apple which is enjoying high profile public fanfare due to an amazing linup of untouchable products ( untouchable to other big business palm greasers that is…)
Smoke and Mirrors. Congress knows it’s ratings are so low you have to dig for them, and they are looking to something to say “Hey, we are working for you”
It seems more likely that our US Federal government is paying off Google for the information they collect. Apple’s technology is a threat to this “mobster” type relationship. Call me crazy, but I can see Schmidt profiting nicely from this transaction being so sleazy himself.
We are already living under Big Brother and have been for some time now… He just happens to have some pretty deep pockets.
They have perfectly legitimate concerns and why shouldn’t they, their job is protecting the privacy of American citizens.
The White House staff and more than a few members of Congress have probably bought iPhones and plan to upgrade their iPads with iOS, so for National Security reasons, I’m sure, inquiring minds want to know the extent to which this information is available and to whom exactly.
I want to know! It’s not enough for Apple to simply cite “partners” or provide a means to turn it off.
What reason would I have to turn it off? Is there something I should be
worried about?
Does Google get this information? I don’t know that I like that if it’s so. They don’t exactly have a good reputation where privacy is concerned. Not to mention how easy their system was hacked.
I knew this was going to become a problem the moment the Android fanboys started questioning Apple’s motives.
I would like to see this policy thoroughly explained to everyone’s satisfaction, in spite of the outrage exhibited on MDN.
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR REP. JOE BARTON IN D.C:
(202) 225-2002
Please contact these congressmen and ask them why they are waisting taxpayer’s time and treasure on this issue.
There is no automated system and a real human answers the phone within the first few rings. His staffers are extreemly polite.
MDN Magic Word: “effort” That’s just creepy.
@breeze.
In typically one sided, black or white, good v evil Liberal Democrat spin, you kindly neglected pointing out there are TWO congressmen in on this deal, and the other is a DEMOCRAT.
Hypocrite.
I wonder if they are already questioning Eric Shimit about the location data on android phones that don’t even acknowledge the user…. Is this about privacy or it is about getting something from Apple? Let’s “question” this two guys about it.
Personal location devices can be used for good and bad. Big Brother and big corporations may monitor you, but at the same time being able to geo-tag photos, videos, and conversations and broadcast them instantly to the world as evidence of certain events can also ensure openness and democracy. When you walk in a place and they demand that you turn off your GPS, that is when you should be really worry.
My question for U.S. Congressmen Markey and Barton
is: “You’re feeding at the public trough. Tell me again
what we’re paying you for?”
“If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.” ~ Phil Zimmermann
http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html
@acid
A double-edged sword, to be sure. However, the tech powers that be are now laying the foundation for what CAN become a surveillance society.
The issue is choice, trust, and informed consent. Telling me I have to opt-in to geo-tracking just to use the iPhone is not choice. It’s extortion.
Spark (& others) are right. The government itself is the biggest offender of “tracking” and infringing on our privacy. The Founding Fathers of the US established the Bill of Rights not to protect us from each other, but to protect us from our own government. That has long since been forgotten by those in government. I do want privacy protection from companies. But, far more, I want the protection from government intrusions and secret oversight. These Congressman had better look there first.
@ G4Dualie: Well said.
@ acid: The shouters here are not interested in democracy, only in proselytizing their own narrow world-view. They idolize the “Tea Party” whose real name is the “Me Party.”
By the way, no one seems to recall that cell phones are *required* to have location broadcasters available for 911 purposes. So the privacy issue is endemic to smart phones and needs careful watching, even by someone in the corporate pocket as much as Barton. “Even a blind pig can occasionally find a truffle.”
@MacSmiley,
No, in fact, it is not. You have the option of using many, many other devices and services.
“Even a blind pig can occasionally find a truffle.”
Well yeah, since they locate them by scent.
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Forgive me for supporting transparency in marketeering practices, but i’ve read Apple’s policy, and i’ve seen its “opt-out” page, and I’m not impressed. It’s little better than the rest of the schmucks of the industry.
A user of any electronic device or service should have the power to individually accept or deny every single piece of data that is taken from him if he chooses, BEFORE that data is gathered. Ideally, he should have much more convenient controls to manage his privacy too. There’s no point in going into greater detail here.
Apple, and every other electronics manufacturer/service provider rushing into the advertising gold rush and datamining without any restraint, skirts all responsibility for their actions with the typical “well if you don’t want to give away all your personal info, then don’t buy our product” BS. This is not acceptable at all. I will buy your phone or log onto your network only when you tell me exactly how you ensure that my contacts/mail/documents are encrypted and protected from harvesting by hackers and by “partners”, and only when i can opt out of all advertising.
Barton wasn’t at all concerned about consumers much less the citizens of all the coastal states affected by the BP oil spill…is this how he apologizes to the consumers for the apology to BP? I am dismayed.
Sixvodkas:
I’ll see your six and raise you gallon any day idiot.
Fist learn the meaning of hypocrite , then learn to apply it when appropriate.
Barton is the only asshole to apologize to BP for being the focus of the biggest oil spill ever which is a number one environmental disaster and exclusively due to their incompetence, greed and corruption which bought political blindness and favor.
Barton had to deflect attention from the matter because it shows the republican’s for where their true interests lie and he got whipped by his own party and kept his job on condition that he do something to make it go away. Stating that does not make me a hypocrite or a democrat you ignorant, little capacity, inebriated hot head.
Has it ever occurred to you that just because someone embraces a republican or democrat issue, doesn’t necessarily make them either?
So, idiot sixvodka amateur drinker, I was remarking about Barton specifically. That does not excuse the other democrat’s motives, or stupidity, be they what they may.
Methinks Apple should make a huge donation of iOS devices to Al Qaeda without the opt out functionality.
A confrontation between the brilliance of Jobs and these idiot politicians roughly equates to a salamander challenging lion.
@ Macsmiley
“The lawmakers in question do not have to know anything about technology. The just need to know the Bill of Rights.”
If they’re to properly apply the Bill of Rights to technology, they absolutely do need to understand technology. Most politicians are techno-buffoons. Until I see proof otherwise, I’d wager that they’re both of that ilk. Especially Barton.