WASHINGTON — Executives from Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) struggled Tuesday to allay the fears of federal lawmakers that location data collected through cellphones and other mobile devices are anonymous and not a threat to personal privacy.
Members of a Senate privacy subcommittee remained uneasy during a hearing as Apple and Google executives defended their companies’ practices while privacy and law enforcement experts warned that identity thieves, stalkers and other criminals still could obtain information about where people are and at what time.
The federal government is doing “far too little” to protect privacy, said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who chairs the new subcommittee. He noted that many mobile applications have no privacy policies and no limits on sharing location data once the user gives approval for programs to access the information.
Apple and Google have been under fire for high-profile data collection controversies, helping fuel efforts by lawmakers and regulators in Washington, California and elsewhere to give people more control over their personal electronic information. Some bills, for instance, contain do-not-track provisions that would ban browsers from tracking the pages that users visit.
Last month, security researchers found that an obscure file in the operating software on Apple iPhones and iPads could store thousands of time-stamped records of a user’s location. Google also said it collects location data from mobile devices running its Android software.
Executives from Apple and Google told senators that they collect the location data anonymously and that the information improves the performance of their devices. They said the companies were committed to protecting privacy and only shared location data with third-party applications if the user agreed to it.
“We are particularly sensitive when it comes to location information,” said Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy for the Americas. He said the data aren’t tied to a specific user and are deleted after about a week.
In a rare congressional appearance by an Apple executive, Guy “Bud” Tribble, the company’s vice president for software technology, said its devices track nearby Wi-Fi hot spots and cellphone towers to create a database that is much quicker to access than GPS signals.
“That data doesn’t have any customer information. It’s totally anonymous,” he said. “Apple does not track users’ locations.”
SENATE HEARING
THE HEARING: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law held a hearing Tuesday to explore what legal protections, if any, should govern location data at a time when wireless carriers, smartphone makers and apps developers have access to ever more detailed information about their users’ whereabouts.
THE TESTIMONY: Executives from Apple and Google told lawmakers that users have control over information used to pinpoint the location of iPhones and smartphones running Google’s Android software.
THE BACKDROP: The hearing followed Apple’s recent admission that its popular iPhone stores data used to help the device locate itself for up to a year.
Source: Associated Press
