More Scrutiny Of Location Data Urged
Applications that collect information about users' whereabouts may soon face more regulatory scrutiny if Congress backs the suggestions from members of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees, which held a hearing Wednesday on privacy risks posed by these programs. Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he will push legislation that would clamp down on commercial applications companies who collect users' location data.
Rules preventing wireless carriers from sharing customers' location data without their consent must also apply to location-reading application companies, said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. The wireless regulations ensure a mobile phone is a "telecommunications device and not a tracker," Markey said, arguing that similar rules should govern applications such as global positioning systems (GPS) and mapping programs, services that connect users with nearby retailers, and social applications such as Four Square, which allow users to tell their friends where they are.
Witnesses testified on the benefits of location-collecting applications, including better connecting users with services. However, concerns were raised that this information could be used in harmful ways, leading to such problems as stalking and privacy infringement. This unregulated area "represents a gap in consumer privacy protection," said Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.
Rush also expressed concern that location-sharing applications will allow advertisers to take advantage of customers' private information. He connected his concern to objections raised over online behavioral advertising, a controversial tactic allowing marketers to use Internet users' browsing preferences to better target ads. "Tracking a user's movements through a virtual world of business-to-consumer Web sites is bad enough," Rush said. "Location-based services, on the other hand, up the ante by making an individual's real-world location data accessible to intended and unintended recipients."
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