Lawmaker says Apple and Google must improve privacy

MOBILE PHONE DATA HARVESTERS Google and Apple have been accused of encroaching on consumers' privacy in a US Senate hearing.

Of course this is not the first time that this has happened, but it is the most recent. During a hearing on Tuesday Senator Al Franken, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee spoke of his 'serious doubts' about the firms' privacy practices and pressed the companies for satisfaction.

"My wireless companies, Apple, and Google, and my apps, all get my location or something very close to it," Senator Franken said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We need to address this issue now, as mobile devices are only going to get more popular."

A master of speaking the obvious he may be, but Franken could also prove to be a nightmare for the firms, both of which are used to battling with regulatory inspection and consumer frustrations, particularly when it comes to privacy.

The hearing concentrated on the most recent of these, the discovery that Android and Apple handsets track their users in secret, without permission, and with less than transparent purposes.

Apple, which recently fixed the location tracking 'bug' in a software update, defended itself, saying that it was not purposefully tracking individuals, while Google suggested that it would be happy to consider adding privacy policies to its app store. µ