NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Hypocrisy in app location legislation
Hypocrisy in app location legislation http://j.mp/Xzvdvg (This message on Google+) - - - Yesterday I noted this article: http://j.mp/XzsJNp (New York Times) about efforts to pass legislation to further controls apps' use of mobile location data. It's appropriate to point out here the fundamental hypocrisy of most governments relating to this kind (and many other kinds) of Internet-related data. By and large, it is in Internet services' own best interests to be quite conservative in their handling of such data. The data is usually anonymized (and compartmented to significant degrees), and a range of rules are in place to minimize the risk of abuse either internally or externally. But at the same time that governments are calling for crackdowns on this sort of data collection by commercial firms, who use it merely to serve ads, these same governments -- including the U.S., in the EU, and elsewhere -- are pushing for massive Internet location (and other data, including email) data collection and retention for governments' own largely unfettered use, often without any warrent requirments, and frequently in secret. They're pushing for laws to require telcos to collect and maintain location data from mobile devices -- data that users *cannot* control or disable so long as their devices are active and associated with the mobile networks. I consider these moves by government to be of vastly more concern than commercial firms who want to serve me more relevant and interesting ads to help keep free Internet services free. A cynical observer might wonder if part of the push to impose restrictions on commercial location data apps is a bit of a diversionary tactic to draw attention from governments' own grandiose data demands. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad