“As the controversy over persistent location tracking in the iPhone and Google Android devices continues to surge, representatives from Apple and Google have been summoned to a Senate judiciary hearing on mobile technology privacy in May,” Josh Ong reports for AppleInsider.
“Democratic Senator Al Franken, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, will hold the hearing, titled ‘Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy,’ on May 10,” Ong reports. “In addition to representatives from Apple and Google, confirmed witnesses at the hearing include officials from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission; Ashkan Soltani, independent privacy researcher and consultant; and Justin Brookman, Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy.”
Ong reports, “After security researchers revealed last week that Apple’s iOS 4 operating system stores a detailed log of user’s locations, Franken and other government officials sent concerned letters to Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Illinois Attorney General Madigan requests meeting with Apple, Google – April 25, 2011
Apple sued for privacy invasion, computer fraud over iOS location data collection, storage – April 25, 2011
Steve Jobs on iOS location tracking: We don’t track anyone, but Droid does – April 25, 2011
Apple iPhone collects location info even when location services are turned off by user – April 25, 2011
Android phones regularly transmit location data to Google ‘at least several times an hour’ – April 22, 2011
House Democrat questions legality of Apple’s iPhone, iPad location tracking – April 21, 2011
Apple’s iOS location tracking file caused by a bit of unfinished code? – April 21, 2011
U.S. Senator Al Franken demands answers from Apple’s Steve Jobs over iPhone tracking – April 21, 2011
Expert: iPhone tracking story is nothing new and Apple is not collecting the data – April 21, 2011
‘untrackerd’ jailbreak utility blocks iOS from storing recorded iPhone location data – April 21, 2011
Apple’s iPhone tracks everywhere you go; stores the info in secret file on the device – April 20, 2011
Yeah, but, more importantly, when does Senator Daffy Duck hold his hearing?
Yeah but more importantly will you and your creed Vanish and be banished come 2012 ?
Highly unlikely. 2010 was just a warmup. But, thanks for your concern.
Even more importantly when will you partisan trolls wake up and admit that you have both been played and sold to the highest bidding corporation? R & D alike are killing our country with your “politics”, how about we stop posturing, pontificating and get down to the real job of governance? The two party system is clearly broken.
No concern here. You carry the seeds of your own destruction.
Are you referring to this:
?????
That’s one truth, but it’s not universal.
Only in a capitalistic society that bears an incestuous relationship with it’s own government is American prosperity doomed.
I bet your creed gets the hiding of it’s life come 2012 and disappears under the rock it came from to become fossil.
Inbreds will self destruct.
Thanks for proving my point Breeze, your vitriol contributed nothing, it’s continuation is leading to the demise of the USA.
Name calling, no compromise, spoon fed talking points, illogical hatred of diverse opinions, in short: sheep, lemmings, pawns. Do yourself and the world a favor.
WAKE UP
Believe me we’ll all be awake come 2012.
Can Apple just send a copy of the EULA that every iPhone owner explicitly/freely accepts and tell Uncle Al to go puck himself?
MDN taking a powder in this issue. Man up whimps.
Hopefully Steve comes out and the committee accepts what he says as truthful and he denigrates google into slithering out of the room.
Geez, I thought this guy already had his 15 minutes of fame.
I’m frightened that someone might know which cell tower I use.
LOL.
Doesn’t The Senate have any real work to do?This is such a waste of time..
Just another opportunity for Franken-nosense to get some attention..
This is the “real work” Congress does – hyperventilating about minor issues and distracting us from the truly important issues of the day.
This is called a “distraction” while they go off and figure out more ways to take more of our liberty and the fruit of our labor.
We can be sure the NSA is already recording all phone calls, emails, texts, etc. We don’t know when this began, but it surely was going on during Shrub’s reign after Congress passed the “Patriot” Act.
… all bent out of shape when the tracking was revealed … “say it ain’t so, Steve”.
Then got all over Franken when he asked the SAME questions … “you dumbDem”.
Then got bent and defensive when it was reported that the info WAS being sent to Apple – AND stored … “PLEASE say it ain’t so, Steve”.
Then made a huge fuss when Madigan asked the same questions … “go powder your nose, this is too important for a mere woman to be involved”.
Now, it’s a mere “distraction”, and the it’s guys who want to investigate who are trying to “take more of our liberty”? You seem to have your own personal Reality Distortion Field, dude. What was IN that Tea you drank?
This is how I see it (and i’m not an American):
In a “greatest democracy in the world”, media whips up a frenzy of reports regarding severe breach of privacy on mobile phones that track and store location info. Among all the noise on the subject, nobody is capable deciphering the actual truth.
Within the democratic system, a publicly elected official, whose duty, as a chairman of a Subcommittee on Privacy, is to look into the privacy issues, decides to hold a hearing and finally get to the truth by inviting key players in the industry.
I can’t see what could possibly be the more appropriate way to sort this all out; media will continue to spin this the worst possible way (to make the story more dramatic and scary); industry players will either ignore it (Apple), or spin it their own way, and ordinary people will have absolutely NO CLUE what is the actual truth.
There is a strong possibility that a senate subcommittee hearing can actually properly reveal how little there is to the whole scandal.
Ahhh ..
So to clarify what the red-herring waving media whores are chewing on today we need more goverment intervention.
Sounds like the American way.
I agree. There *are* privacy laws, and there *is* a congressional subcommittee for the review and creation of these laws. Frankin happens to be the chair of this committee. A hearing in this is not out of line, and It is appropriate that Frankin be the one to call for it.
So, the people who do know what’s what, the players, tell a public servant who is clueless, who then will tell the media and the public? Why would that convince me anymore than a direct statement from “the players”, which I already have.
There’s an even better possibility that they will end up adding this file to the list of things TSA will access during airport security checks?
Al needs to know who knows, and how much, about his own locations during the election recount.
Al will be
you got it right. keep the masses distracted with this bs so they don’t notice the important stuff. aka high taxes, war, debt, government corruption
Except, that in American politics, every issue is a potential vehicle to further party agenda. For example, if you don’t like Obama, then he is the one who “forced” Apple to track your every move so he could give that information to his secret Muslim army. If you’re a Democrat, then Apple is another corporation that seeks to use tracking data to target you with a flood of ads to increase profits.
You may not be an American, but you have a pretty good idea how things are supposed to work in a democracy. More than I can say for half the people posting comments on this board.
The bottom line is, the backwater media, who isn’t beholding to journalistic ethos plants a story designed to excite (hits) a very narrow segment of society. Without the benefit of first-handknowledge, or any desire to read up on the topic, many “zombies” just go ballistic to the point where the zombie festival draws the attention of the MSM.
It’s only then, that leaders are forced to deal with the information. It’s too bad, there are so few voices in this vertical news market to quell the BS, before it hits the mainstream press.
You mentioned earlier about the inane forces at play compelling people to act whether they’re prepared to do so, or not.
This, like your shareholder/CEO scenario is also one of those occasions. Our congresspeople are being forced to deal with a subject that is, and will be in a state of flux for years to come. But rather than let the market deal with these issues in their own methodical way, government will be forced to intervene and once the Feds get their oafish hands on it, it never turns out good for consumers.
The corporate lobbyists will usurp our power and demand satisfaction. We make it easy for them, because ignorance usually prevails among sheep.
In the end, we seem to lose a bit more freedom in the marketplace. Corporate swine use the occasion to undermine consumer satisfaction, which usually equates to a cost-savings, while keeping congress’ indebted feet to the fire, and once again the ignorant and sheepish consumers let something else get taken away.
Ah, as usual Predrag injects a thoughtful, rational viewpoint into the usual mire of anything-political-USA … Which will predictably be ignored by the usual fringe elements who post regularly on this site. Predrag: It is too bad there are not more Americans with your “non-American” clarity and reasonableness of thought.
I would love to see a true debate on a wide array of issues between Al Franken and Mark Steyn.
These Franken-Steyn forums would be witty, enlightening, challenging, and thought provoking….(plus whatever Al had to say…)
A chance for Apple to poke fun at joker Al.
There’s nothing more demeaning than being summoned by Al Franken.
(And I loved the comments by TowerTone!!)
Isn’t it amazing? All the so-called conservatives infesting this forum appear to be in favor of government and industry having unfettered access to personal data. It takes a ‘damned librul’ to stand up for individual rights.
a.) don’t buy the phone if you don’t like it
b.) any phone with gps has tracking capabilities
c.) buy a burner phone and ditch it once a month when you change the tin foil on your head
What about the people who already bought the phone and are in a 2 year contract?
While I can appreciate your dilemma you could start by turning off your Location Services and don’t allow third-party software makers to access your location under the guise of sending you alerts and notices and freebies!
You should probably confine all voice calls to only those in your address book. And it’s probably not best to pull out your iPhone in public. It will only draw unwanted attention to yourself.
As a last ditch effort, sell it. Use the money to get out of your contract. But, don’t consider buying another cell phone, because ALL cell phones can be used to place you within a 1-mile radius of the nearest cell tower.
Umm, Stinky, the comedian’s self-aggrandizing grab for an issue seems to have been done in ignorance of the fact that federal law requires cell phones to track their location.
See http://macdailynews.com/2011/04/26/newsflash-in-the-u-s-your-cellphone-has-been-tracking-you-for-nearly-a-decade-mandated-by-fcc-in-2001/
This could be quite good for Apple and bad for Google. Bring it on.
It is a mistake to underestimate All Franken.
Is it even possible to underestimate Al Franken? Expectations of him are quite low, I would imagine.
It is impossible to underestimate bozo al.
It is with amusement, and quite a bit of bewilderment, that us, non-Americans watch the American political landscape. It all started when an actor (??) was elected the president of the country, and continued until this day. The way it looks right now, there is a very high probability that the next American president will be Donald Trump (of all people). That such an ignorant, self-serving, self-aggrandizing buffoon could actually be even considered fit for ANY public office, let alone the highest one in the most powerful democracy in the world, says a lot about the current level of political intelligence in America…
And it is also with amusement, and quite a bit of pity, that we Americans look at folks like you, Predrag, seeing that when you really don’t know what you’re talking about you resort to ad hominem arguments. Trump, while certainly self-aggrandizing – as is any politician, non-American ones especially – is in no way “ignorant,” and you simply betray your own ignorance and level of political intelligence with such a puerile tactic.
(Then again, our home-grown liberals do the same thing when they can’t attack on an argument’s merits – which is virtually all the time – so perhaps I shouldn’t be quite so harsh.)
I don’t think I was arguing anything here; it was merely my observation about Trump. I am willing to give in on the ‘ignorant’ argument, as I’m not exactly completely convinced of that one, although I’m pretty sure his expertise in business (especially, real estate business) doesn’t necessarily translate into general knowledge and acumen.
My primary observation was that he was a buffoon, and it is difficult for anyone to argue against that one, considering the volumes of embarrassing coverage he had received throughout decades. During the years of living in America, I have met Americans of all political beliefs, from ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal (although more of them were on the conservative side), and all of them have consistently shared very similar opinion about Trump, which I summed up and shared above.
There are many, many very intelligent men who share conservative (and Republican) values, who would be infinitely more appropriate candidates than Trump. But the only one with a reality TV show is Trump, so he’s the most popular, regardless of merit.
He filed for bankruptcy three-times in twenty-years! And there are a couple of lawsuits pending over his business ethics.
I’m a citizen and I think he’s a maroon. He’s a goldfish! Watch him talk and his mouth becomes fish lips.
Perhaps emmayche is ready to turn over the reins of government to a mediocre businessman with a flair for marketing, but the American people aren’t.
The Donald represents everything that is absolutely garish, gaudy, and tasteless about America and your observation wasn’t too far off.
You criticize Predrag for an ad hominem attack, then go on to make one yourself. Nice.
and yet Obama was elected.
At least Reagan was a Governor, so it is a little disingenuous to call him an actor as calling Carter a peanut farmer, JFK a boat captain, Ike a baby killer, or FDR an elitist.
But keeping it in perspective, you are right when applying the ‘current level of political intelligence’ to our inexperienced 44th President.
I really have no problem calling people by their “permanent” profession – “President of the USA” is a temp job.
Reagan WAS an actor, not to mention the president of an actor’s union. An actor’s job doesn’t simply entail repeating words.
Carter WAS a peanut farmer. He was also a nuclear reactor specialist in the Navy. I disagree with much of his world view, but anyone who calls him an idiot (as many of my friends have) will find an argument with me.
Ike helped defend the world from Nazism. ‘Nuff said.
FDR was of “the elite,” but the furthest thing from an “elitist.” Even though mostly confined to a wheelchair, his entire family had the attitude of public service. While his policies from an economic point of view almost REQUIRED a war to recover from, no one can doubt that he was an effective leader, and his emotional healing of the country from its troubles was likely worth the economic price.
Obama was a community organizer. And here is where Thumper’s Law applies. (“If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)
Not knowing much about your current president, I had to look into this “Community Organiser” thing. Apparently, that job (Director of the Developing Communities Project) was fairly early in his life. It looks like his more credit worthy jobs (which I have a hard time finding anywhere in the media) were as a law professor at the Chicago University Law School, and as an attorney at a civil rights law firm. I don’t know about you, but to me, it seems like a decent resume (surely no worse than Nixon’s, who only worked as an attorney before entering politics; or being an actor and nothing else, with all the respect duly given to Reagan for precipitating the end of cold war, among other of his accomplishments).
What is most fascinating about American political mindset is the selective memory. And this isn’t just about politics: Americans will simply ignore and not even bother to know the things they don’t like. When American ‘Dream Team’ was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the summer of 2002 Basketball World Championship (in Indiana, of all places) by Yugoslavia, the next day, the American public simply ceased to even know that the event was actually taking place in their own back yard. Yugoslavia went on to take the gold, but if you asked Americans on Monday after who was the world champion in Basketball, they would ALL answer “Well, USA, of course!”. This same attitude is persistent across American political landscape: if some information about a politician does not line up with your impression of him, that information simply ceases to exist for you. And this is consistent across the entire spectrum (progressive or conservative).
Oh Predrag… (sigh) some Americans are those things you say they are, generally speaking but, let’s be clear, America doesn’t have an exclusive on ignorance or choosing to omit or overlook the truth.
We’re all pretty much the same around the world and you know what? When all of our basic needs have been met, all of us are pretty decent people. Surpass our basic needs and we all rise to the challenge of making the world a better place.
Having said that though, there are that few ten-percent that are just plain rotten to the core who will never be satisfied with their own happiness.
You could pass the pipe and break bread with these people and come away thinking you’ve made a connection, but be sorry you ever turned your back on them.
G4Dualie,
Please forgive me if I have offended you by generalising a nation of over 300 million people. You are also absolutely right that Americans are far from alone on ignorance or overlooking the truth. I suppose we never recognise our own bad habits, but always tend to point out the things we don’t like in others.
I must have been personally irked by the example I had mentioned, which led me to such broad generalisation. Sorry about that.
Actually, Jemmuh is a useful idiot. (Look that term up.)
Al Franken is a short, skinny stupid idiot.
Al’s a smart guy. Most comedians are. And that seems to get lost on Republicans. But I fear that Al has succumbed to “Senator Stupidity”, a similar ailment to “Representative Retardedness”, where members of Congress forget who they were and how they thought and behaved before going to Washington. Grand-standing? Over-arching ernestness? Who the hell knows?
I’m a Republican, and I had high hopes for Franken, knowing (as you pointed out) that a successful comedian has to be quite intelligent. (I always hope for intelligent adversaries; not only are they easier to convince based on facts and less likely to be swayed by emotional arguments, but I generally learn things from them.)
Unfortunately, most successful comedians also have a huge ego, and I’m afraid that Mr. Franken is a victim of his own press, and has become the Ego That Walks Like A Senator. I doubt he will be re-elected.
He wasn’t even elected in the first place. 😉
He wrote five best-sellers that poked a lot of fun at the loony right and their brain trust on talk radio.
I laughed my ass off because he is smart and funny. He has an uncanny way of holding up a mirror to the political fringe in our society to expose them as charlatans.
So, excuse me if I don’t buy into your endorsement or high hopes for Senator Franken. He made a boatload of money off your ilk.
He’ll be reelected and you’ve been iCal’d.
There was this screwball comedy, “The Distinguished Gentleman”, starring Eddie Murphy, from some 20 years ago. While the film was somewhat weak, it did touch on the corrupt ways of Washington, the elected officials and the power of lobbies.
I cannot imagine any decent an honest person reconciling his own values with the ways of doing business in Congress (or Senate). Even if such a person does get elected, those values will evaporate within a few weeks, as soon as they learn what must be done in order to survive (politically, as well as literally) in Washington, DC.
Another is “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” which, while dated in its technology, is certainly accurate in its intrigue. Except for the ending, where someone gets an attack of conscience. Nowadays, serving in the Congress requires that you present a Certificate of Death of Conscience.
Al Franken is a moron, two wars going on, the country is bankrupt and all is has to worry about is your iphone! Minnesota you should all be ashamed of yourselves! for electing this idiot!
Minnesota has a sense of humor. They know that most politicians are idiots, so they just elect the most obvious ones.
Are you now attacking Minnesota?
You are trying to relate things that are not related. There used to be a joke that was rather popular during the years of Cold War.
American delegation is visiting Moscow. The Russians are proudly showing them their famous Moscow subway. They tell them the trains run every 5 minutes. They wait for the train, but it doesn’t show up. 10 minutes, 15 minutes… Americans say: “Well, something seems to be wrong with your train service”, to which the Russians respond: “Oh, come on, let’s not talk what you people do to your black minority!”
Senate has a Subcommittee on Privacy. A major news frenzy has been whipped up by media about a massive privacy issue with mobile phones (if you were to take media word for it). If a Senate Subcommittee on Privacy did nothing about it, people would rightfully complain “What are our elected officials doing about it!!??” Apparently, you aren’t exactly a fan of Mr. Franken, but he is a Senator, and the chairman of that committee, so he really had no choice but to call for these hearings.
if the subcommittee on privacy was not a joke it would investigate
home land security, now there is a invasion of privacy!
Again, you don’t understand the role of government or the doctrine of separation of powers.
You’re positing his committee should undermine the authority of the Executive or Judicial branches? Fail.
While the Legislative branch oversees, and investigates any violations of the rules it adopts for running a government, it is incumbent upon the Executive branch to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress.
According to the President, Homeland is doing its job and it’s up to the Judicial branch to conduct judicial reviews of the constitutionality of American law. If they uncover a problem they’ll decide what Congress meant when they wrote the law (legislation from the bench), or Congress can intervene and make a new law.
When the American people get sick and tired of being herded like sheep, they’ll protest. But right now, they don’t seem to mind all that much.
You know who knows how to throw a good protest? Egypt and Syria and Libya. They have folks over there being slaughtered just for standing up for themselves. They aren’t backing down either.
They’re tired of repressive regimes, that stifle open communication, who suckle at the teat of big business, and chip away at their civil rights.
I think your being over the top disingenuous about what he should be doing.
He’s not on a committee for war or finance! What would you have him do? Stop the people’s work and force himself onto a committee for which he wasn’t appointed?
Clearly, you sir, are an idiot who should stay out of Minnesota politics.
He works on behalf of the Judiciary and was assigned to chair a subcommittee on privacy (Fourth amendment) issues.
Obviously, you know nothing about delegation of authority or spreading the workload around favorably and prudently, instead you would have us believe the Senator from the great state of Minnesota is ignoring two wars and the country’s financial problems, because he’s is making a bigger issue out of a cell phone.
Why do you hate America?
Hit Keyword “Democratic Senator Al Franken”
What about the CIA and the FBI? Am I supposed to believe that neither of these government intelligence gathering agencies have no interest or involvement in cell-phone tracking data? Am I supposed to believe that it is all big bad Apple that wants to track your every move? I don’t think Apple could care less, but the CIA and FBI would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if they could track the movement of every American with a smart phone.
I find it strangely discomforting that the legislative branch is taking on the responsibilities of the judicial branch.
Senator Franken is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. That’s, the committee which processes all legislature before it becomes American law.
Civics lesson 101: The President appoints all members of the Judicial branch and they don’t make the laws, they apply the law. They resolves disputes of the law. They’re appointed, not elected.
The Legislative branch, to which Senator Franken was elected, and subsequently assigned to the Judiciary committee, is responsible for promulgating American law.
But, I can certainly understand why you find it all discomforting.
If Senator Franken had only summoned Google, you’d all be cheering him on.
Sounds like Al Friggin’ is worried about who knows where he’s been. As probably the rest of the politicians rightly should be.
We need one of those old Family Circus Cartoon drawings showing the path Billy the Senator takes from leaving his house until he goes home a night. Hmm… Starbucks, work, meet lobyists for lunch, work, mistress’ house, home.
Wow, interesting combination of political dribble and earnest political discourse 😉 I think people who cry out over loss of privacy should stop using cell phones, the internet, credit cards, checking accounts, and hide out where Google Street can’t find them 🙂 We get government action from both the US and European Union (maybe others I’ve neglected to read about) on these kinds of issues but the bottom line is if people want the cool technology in their lives, they will give up their privacy, which has never been all that private anyway. It doesn’t really matter what Franken says, except that perhaps more people will understand what location services means and be able to make more intelligent choices about how they protect themselves. I think after a few months we will be on to some new issue to keep the blogs hopping. Everything has risk. Learn about them, manage them, and make your own decisions. Meanwhile Apple will sell another gazillion personal isomethings :)) Governments move too slowly to control this and consumer demand is global and transcends governments. Make the iPhone illegal in Europe and someone will make a ton of money exporting their iphones to Europe. Ban location services in one country and you will create a new market for it. Good luck 😉