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Apple and Google face music over handling customer data

by on10 July 2018


Tame Apple Press in shock

The Tame Apple Press is in shock that their favourite company is being hauled before a Senate committee over its uses of location data and mobile phone privacy practices and the handling of customer data.

Four senior US House Republicans sent letters on Monday to the chief executives of Apple and Google asking questions about location data and mobile phone privacy practices and the handling of customer data.  While everyone expected Google to be in trouble, the tame Apple Press has done a sterling job portraying the company as not interested in stealing customer data.  Apple's official policy has been to charge users an arm and a leg for its products and not have to make money peddling their data to the highest bidder. 

The chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden, along with three other senior Republicans on the panel, wrote the companies “to probe the companies’ representation of third-party access to consumer data, and the collection and use of audio recording data as well as location information via iPhone and Android devices”.

Alphabet said Monday that it would answer the committee’s questions. “Protecting our users’ privacy and securing their information is of the utmost importance to Google”, the company said..

An Apple spokesman declined to comment. The letters, made public by the committee on Monday, said the companies may be using consumer data, including location information and recordings of users “in ways that consumers do not expect”.

The letters cited reports that smartphones can, and in some instances, do, “collect ‘non-triggered’ audio data from users’ conversations near a smartphone in order to hear a ‘trigger’ phrase, such as ‘Okay Google’ or ‘Hey Siri’.” They said there have been suggestions that third-party applications have access to and use this ‘non-triggered’ data without disclosure to users.

The letters both ask if Google Android or Apple iPhones collect audio recordings of users without their consent and said the committee “is reviewing business practices that may impact the privacy expectations of Americans”.

 

Last modified on 10 July 2018
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