Google Android OS Joins Smartphone Tracking Controversy
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) - It turns out it's not just Apple devices potentially tracking users' every move. The iPhone tracking controversy has spread to include Google's Android devices as well.
Both tech companies have reportedly been gathering information for use in location-based services - a business that could be lucrative to the tune of $8 billion within a matter of a few years.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
"Google and Apple and others see the mobile device as the perfect commercial tracking tool. It's always with the consumer wherever they go," pointed out Jeff Chester with the Center for Digital Democracy. "These phones I'm afraid are so smart they're outsmarting us and violating our privacy."
He said users should be given the power to opt out of mobile tracking, but not everyone shares that view.
"My reaction was like so what?" declared ZDNet Editor-in-Chief Larry Dignan, pointing out that the benefits of these devices trump any privacy concern. "Apple's MobileMe has a feature where you can find your lost iPhone. If they didn't know where your iPhone was that wouldn't be possible."
"You know, if you look at people who are using FourSquare, they're giving up a lot of their privacy, right?" Dignan pointed out. "I can tell you where some of my friends are right now."
Still, privacy watchdogs have demanded answers about why these tech companies are secretly - or perhaps not so secretly now - collecting location data on users.
Much of the concern about the tracking stems from the fact the computers are logging users' physical coordinates without users knowing it - and that that information is then stored in an unencrypted form that would be easy for a hacker or a suspicious spouse or a law enforcement officer to find without a warrant.
Researchers emphasize that there's no evidence that the tech companies themselves have access to this data. The data apparently stays on the device itself, and computers the data is backed up to.
In short, it appears that tracking is a normal part of owning a cellphone. What's done with that data, though, is where the controversy lies.
A central question in this controversy is whether a smartphone should act merely as a conduit of location data to service providers and approved applications or as a more active participant by storing the data itself, to make location-based applications run more smoothly or help better target mobile ads or any number of other uses.
Location data is some of the most valuable information a mobile phone can provide, since it can tell advertisers not only where someone's been, but also where they might be going and what they might be inclined to buy when they get there.
Experts say the location coordinates and time stamps in the devices aren't always exact, but appear in a file that typically contains about a year's worth of data that when taken together provide a detailed view of users' travels.
The issue has prompted several members of Congress to write letters to Apple, based in Cupertino, to answer questions about the practice.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said it raises "serious privacy concerns," especially for children using the devices, since "anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user's home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken over the past months or even a year."
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., questioned whether the practice may be illegal under a federal law governing the use of location information for commercial purposes, if consumers weren't properly informed.
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