“Apple and Google [yesterday] made a repeat appearance in front of the US Senate, newly joined by Facebook, for a subcommittee on mobile privacy,” Electronista reports.
“The corporations largely stuck to earlier positions in defense of their actions,” Electronista reports. “‘Apple does not track users’ locations — Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so,’ said Apple’s VP of government affairs, Catherine Novelli.”
“‘I think anyone who uses a mobile device has an expectation of privacy, and sadly that expectation is not always being met,’ commented Sen. John Rockefeller IV [D – WV] at one point during the hearing,” Electronista reports. “Topics during the hearing included the concept of ‘do not track’ lists, and Sen. Mark Pryor [D – AR] asked whether or not geotracking can ever be ‘legitimate.’ Rockefeller later commented that apps are ‘totally unregulated,’ something he wants fixed.”
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CNET’s Declan McCullagh reports, “Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said that ‘we need companies like Google and Apple and Facebook’ to join Microsoft, which has ‘already come down on the side of common sense’ in this area.”
“It wasn’t clear what Kerry meant,” McCullagh reports. “Microsoft also collects records of the physical locations of customers who use its mobile operating system, but the company did not testify at today’s hearing and has not responded to a list of questions about its data collection practices that CNET posed on April 25.”
McCullagh reports, “While the discussion was billed as being about mobile privacy, it soon veered in other directions, with senators waving around their iPhones and asking about ‘do not track’ lists and ads in e-mail, an apparent reference to e-mail spam. And Sen. Mark Pryor wondered whether it geotracking was ever ‘legitimate’ — even though without an app’s ability to transmit its location, location-based services wouldn’t function. Today’s situation is that ‘apps that are totally unregulated. and the question is what do we do about that,’ Rockefeller said. ‘They have to be regulated.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
U.S. Senate Democrat Leahy introduces electronic communications privacy bill – May 18, 2011
Apple, Google, and Facebook to face 2nd U.S. Senate hearing on May 19 – May 17, 2011
Apple open to lawsuit over location data collection – May 11, 2011
Apple, Google detail mobile privacy policies before US Senate subcommittee – May 10, 2011
Recap of Apple and Google’s testimony before Senator Al Franken’s mobile privacy hearing – May 10, 2011
next, the cretins Kerry, rock and Pryor will demand that iOS be licensed to Microsoft for 1 cent per unit with full permission to mutilate the software as MS feels fit.