Apple and Google Address Senate Committee on Mobile Privacy

Among the more notable speakers were Google’s Director of Public Policy Alan Davidson and Apple’s Vice President of Software Technology Bud Tribble. Both were given adequate time to explain their company’s position on storing location data, as well as what they plan on doing to improve privacy on their mobile platforms going forward. Below is a snippet from Tribble’s testimony outlining Apple’s stance:

 

“We do not share customer information with third parties without our customers’ explicit consent. Apple does not track users’ locations. Apple has never done so and has no plans to do so. An Apple device does not send to Apple any specific device information associated with a user. The purpose of the cache is to allow the device to more quickly and reliably respond to location requests. Apple was never tracking an individual user’s location. The data seen on the iphone was not the location past or present of the iPhone, but the location of cell towers surrounding the phone. Although the cache was not encrypted, it was protected from other apps on the phone.”

 

The topics of conversation during the hearing went beyond simply the storing of location data with potentially illegal apps, such as those that display police checkpoints for drunk drivers, becoming the target of a semi-heated debate. Eventually the discussion moved onto Apple and Google policies for accepting third-party apps. Senator Al Franken even went as far as urging the two companies to commit to forcing third-party app developers to implement a privacy policy explaining to the user how their personal data will be handled. Neither representative agreed to commit, but took time to explain their admittedly different approaches for reviewing and accepting apps. 

 

Apples full testimony can be viewed in PDF format here. You can swing by the Google Public Policy Blog to read Google’s full testimony. 

 

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