Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
has called on Congress to investigate "immediately" location data
collection by iPhones, iPads and Androids.
Markey, who is co-chair
of the House privacy caucus was responding to reports that the Apple iOS 4
operating system and Android phone are collecting and storing unsecured
personal location data.
He sent a letter to
Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week asking for info and over the weekend called
on his fellow legislators to investigate the issue, in part to spur better
disclosure policies "so consumers and families can understand who is
seeing their information."
In calling for the
investigation, Markey also put in a plug for his upcoming child online
protection legislation. He will propose a kids "do not track" regime
so that "children do not have their online behavior tracked or their personal
information collected or disclosed."
Markey, along with
caucus co-chair Joe Barton (R- Tex.), were very active on the data-collection
front in the last Congress, including regarding a change in Apple's privacypolicy on location-based data collection
and the issue of Google's wi-fi data harvesting abroad and at home.
