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Sen. Franken Introduces Bill To Keep Your Location Safe

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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core_location_map.jpg


After hearing from Apple, Google, and others last month, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) today introduced The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011, a new bill that would require companies to take better care of user location information on mobile devices:
<strong>The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011 </strong>is a narrowly-tailored bill that would close current loopholes in federal law to require any company that may obtain a customer’s location information from his or her smartphone or other mobile device to (1) get that customer’s express consent before collecting his or her location data; and (2) get that customer’s express consent before sharing his or her location data with third parties. If any company obtains the location information for more than 5,000 mobile devices, that company will also have to (3) take reasonable steps to protect that information from reasonably foreseeable threats; (4) tell an inquiring customer whether or not they have his or her information, and (5) delete that information if that customer so requests it.
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The Senator "concluded that our laws do too little to protect information on our mobile devices" and noted that "this legislation would give people the right to know what geolocation data is being collected about them and ensure they give their consent before it’s shared with others.”

Just a few weeks ago, Senator Franken sent a letter to Apple and Google, requesting that both companies require app developers to have "clear and understandable privacy policies".

It would appear that Apple is already in compliance with sections 1 through 3, and presumably sections 4 and 5 are fairly easy to implement. iOS apps are already required to ask users for permission to use their location data and iOS devices display an icon in the top bar to indicate when location data is being used.

Repeated attempts by MacRumors to obtain the full text of the bill through Senator Franken's office were unsuccessful, though a one-page summary [PDF] is available.

This isn't the first time Congress has attempted to regular location information on mobile devices. A similar bill was introduced in 2001 by then-Senator John Edwards (D-NC). In fact, the bill had an identical title, The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2001.

That bill would have ordered the FCC to require providers of location-based services to:
(1) inform customers about their policies on the collection, use, disclosure of, and access to customer location information; and (2) receive a customer's express authorization before collecting, using, retaining, or disclosing such information.
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The Edwards bill died in committee.

Article Link: Sen. Franken Introduces Bill To Keep Your Location Safe
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/15/sen-franken-introduces-bill-to-keep-your-location-safe/
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
Ah yes, the government will happily protect our location data from those mean corporations while in the same breath renewing the Patriot Act which allows them to skirt the entire Constitution when it comes to privacy.
 
R

rikscha

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2010
800
420
London
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

chrmjenkins said:
Ah yes, the government will happily protect our location data from those mean corporations while in the same breath renewing the Patriot Act which allows them to skirt the entire Constitution when it comes to privacy.
Click to expand...

I'm not travelling to the US because they can basically copy everything off your phone, laptop etc without stating any real reasons. Most companies advise their employees not to carry any such devices when travelling to the US. Needed data etc is simply downloaded or transferred over the web
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,561
6,059
Question:

How is a company able to comply with 4 & 5 if all the location data they collect is completely anonymous?
 
iTim314

iTim314

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2005
337
6
U.S.
chrmjenkins said:
Ah yes, the government will happily protect our location data from those mean corporations while in the same breath renewing the Patriot Act which allows them to skirt the entire Constitution when it comes to privacy.
Click to expand...

Best. Comment. Ever.
 
ratzzo

ratzzo

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2011
829
35
Madrid
While this is definitely a step forward in the right direction, I'm sure carriers have other tricks up their sleeves. Without much thought, they could just force you to agree to some of these intruding data mining if you ever want to use a feature (ie. blocked until access is granted). The whole privacy and intimacy issue is a tough mess to unravel.
 
thatisme

thatisme

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2010
485
106
United States
<sarcasm> oh, yay! </sarcasm>

So glad that Stuart Smally is hard at work on our budget issues... anonymous GPS information is a much more important issue to tackle.



:confused:
 
rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
chrmjenkins said:
Ah yes, the government will happily protect our location data from those mean corporations while in the same breath renewing the Patriot Act which allows them to skirt the entire Constitution when it comes to privacy.
Click to expand...


Hey, I came here to say that. Well done, sir.
 
GSPice

GSPice

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2008
1,632
89
chrmjenkins said:
Ah yes, the government will happily protect our location data from those mean corporations while in the same breath renewing the Patriot Act which allows them to skirt the entire Constitution when it comes to privacy.
Click to expand...

rikscha said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)



I'm not travelling to the US because they can basically copy everything off your phone, laptop etc without stating any real reasons. Most companies advise their employees not to carry any such devices when travelling to the US. Needed data etc is simply downloaded or transferred over the web
Click to expand...

And in other news, foil stock jumps 7.6%
 
T

TeamMojo

macrumors regular
Feb 3, 2004
191
250
Seriously? Having solved all other problems and dealt with Trillions in debt and deficit, the US Senate can now worry about Mobile Phone location information. This has to be a joke. After all, Franken is a comedian.
 
B

beangibbs

macrumors member
Jan 26, 2011
53
0
**** that.

If senators can make laws that keep our privacy safe, they can make laws that let them invade it.
Like the Patriot Act, which isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Senators need to keep away from our apps, app stores and mobile devices...in every way possible.
 
O

Optheduim

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2011
197
313
NYC
Omfg

Ugh If you're a Franken Constituent please don't vote him again. I'd rather Apple, Google, Facebook, Verizon, AT&T, and Nestle-Tollhouse know my habits, where I go/where i shop/where I sleep/and what I do over my government.

Companies want us to use their crap. And the (our?) Government wants everything we are.

I'd rather pay taxes to apple... at least they'll give us something that works won't steal out of our pockets... and if its broken (MobileMe) they will actually fix it (iCloud)...

How 'bout them :apple:'s??
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Step 4 would be very easy. “No” :) And that solves Step 5 too!

Optheduim said:
Ugh If you're a Franken Constituent please don't vote him again. I'd rather Apple, Google, Facebook, Verizon, AT&T, and Nestle-Tollhouse know my habits, where I go/where i shop/where I sleep/and what I do over my government.
Click to expand...

I can’t help but think there isn’t really as much separation as you think, between our government and the deep-pocketed corporations that pull its strings.
 
M

Mak47

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2011
751
32
Harrisburg, PA
Can we have a consent button to give the government approval to access our location info? It's already required by law that they can and they're far less trustworthy than these companies.

At least the Apples and Googles of the world can be kept in line by refusing to give them our money if/when they cross the line. Franken and the rest of the good-for-nothings in congress just get to take it at will.

I wonder if this will apply to the DHS apps, they're third parties aren't they?
 
T

twojtyniak

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2011
1
0
Worst thing ever?

While I understand and share the concerns about the Patriot Act, do the other complainers think it is a BAD idea to have an opt in on this?

And do they really think that NOTHING else should be done except "work" on "fixing" the economy? Any specific, detailed, implementable suggestions on what to do?

This kind of "do exactly what I want or I want you recalled" approach to government is part of what makes it so broken, IMO.
 
iScott428

iScott428

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2011
230
0
Orlando, FL
God what a waste of time. Damn all of you politians for throwing my tax dollar down the drain on a useless law like this one! I am so sick of the goverment trying to always help people that can not help them selves. Remember in school there were posters on the classroom walls with clever sayings like Silence is Golden, and Sharing is Caring...well they should plaster "Less government is more government!" All over the place!!
 
*LTD*

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
There was never a problem to begin with, Al.


rikscha said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)



I'm not travelling to the US because they can basically copy everything off your phone, laptop etc without stating any real reasons. Most companies advise their employees not to carry any such devices when travelling to the US. Needed data etc is simply downloaded or transferred over the web
Click to expand...

Who is "they"? And why would "they" care about your crap?

What do you have on your devices that is so incriminating?

E-mails from grandma? Your drunk pics from New Year's?
 
T

tbrinkma

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2006
1,651
93
ArtOfWarfare said:
Question:

How is a company able to comply with 4 & 5 if all the location data they collect is completely anonymous?
Click to expand...

That's the trick. The gov't doesn't really have a problem with companies collecting the information. They just want to make sure it is reliably mapped to an individual so they can subpoena it at some point.
 
K

Kuges

macrumors newbie
Jun 1, 2010
16
0
R

RussOniPhone

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2008
44
0
thatisme said:
<sarcasm> oh, yay! </sarcasm>

So glad that Stuart Smally is hard at work on our budget issues... anonymous GPS information is a much more important issue to tackle.



:confused:
Click to expand...

He is trying to protect himself from getting caught like Sen Weiner, bet he owns an iPhone. This Sen Smaily needs to be concentrating on the mess they got us into with the economy.
 
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