“Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) unveiled a bill Wednesday that would require firms such as Apple and Google along with app developers to obtain consent before collecting or sharing consumers’ location data,” Gautham Nagesh reports for The Hill.
“The bill would require firms to get customers’ expressed consent before collecting location data from their smartphones or mobile devices,” Nagesh reports. “Any firm that obtains location data from more than 5,000 mobile devices must take reasonable steps to protect and delete that data if requested by the customer.”
“Franken raised the issue at his first hearing as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Privacy subpanel last month, where he pressed representatives from Apple and Google on reports their smartphone platforms were storing and transmitting user location data. Both firms denied tracking consumers,” Nagesh reports. “Franken subsequently wrote to both firms asking them to require clear privacy policies from all apps sold for their platforms. Both firms have said no user information is shared without their consent, but Franken’s legislation would make that pledge mandatory.”
Nagesh reports, “The Justice Department would likely be in charge of enforcement.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]