Grant Gross reports:
A U.S. senator wants Apple and Google to require some applications in their mobile app stores to have privacy policies as a way to protect users against location tracking.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s privacy subcommittee, called on the two mobile OS makers to require privacy policies for “location-aware” apps in a letter sent to the CEOs of Apple and Google on Wednesday. Neither company requires apps they sell to have privacy policies in place, he said in the letter.
Read more on Computerworld.
I would really like to see a thoughtful response from both Google and Apple as to why they haven’t imposed this requirement already. Like Senator Franken, I don’t think it’s enough, but it is a first step and on some level, forms a basis for consumer protection if companies then violate their own policies.