Kashmir Hill writes: Though Apple and Google have become the whipping boys for location privacy, both companies have said that the data sent back to them about phone users’ movements is anonymized and not traceable to individuals. That is not the case with carriers: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile do have extensive logs of people’s…
Category: Business
Wireless carriers reveal location privacy policies
Cecilia Kang reports: The nation’s top wireless carriers say they all collect personal information, including location data, about subscribers and use much of that information to tailor marketing pitches for more services. In letters responding to lawmakers’ questions, they described varied policies on protecting data and how long they retain location and other sensitive information…
TomTom apologies for giving customer driving data to cops
Dan Goodin reports: Navigation device maker TomTom has apologized for supplying driving data collected from customers to police to use in catching speeding motorists. The data, including historical speed, has been sold to local and regional governments in the Netherlands to help police set speed traps, Dutch newspaper AD reported here, with a Google translation…
Windows Phone 7: no on-device location tracking; online another matter
Declan McCullagh reports: Like Apple and Google, Microsoft collects records of the physical locations of customers who use its mobile operating system. Windows Phone 7, supported by manufacturers including Dell, HTC, LG, Nokia, and Samsung, transmits to Microsoft a miniature data dump including a unique device ID, details about nearby Wi-Fi networks, and the phone’s…