A number of apps tend to keep tabs on your locational data. This data is then sold to other third parties who would normally use it for their own advertisement and marketing purposes. U.S. Senator, Al Franken, wants such apps to get explicit permission from users before sharing information about their location.
Naturally, the senator’s views reflect the concerns of millions of users who think that sharing locational information without consent is a breach of user privacy. It can even jeopardize a user’s security who, at any given time, may want his location to be completely secret.
Senator Al Franken is now putting his weight behind a location privacy bill. The bill would make it incumbent upon the companies gathering locational data to first seek explicit permission from the users both for gathering this data and then sharing it with third parties.
Moreover, these apps will have to clearly tell which third parties they will be selling their data to. Not only that, any such apps which ‘cyberstalk’ the users in secret will be held as indulging in criminal activity.
Franken cited his concerns regarding location-tracking apps in the following words, “Location information is extremely sensitive information. Parties with access to this information know what roads you take to work, the church you go to, where you drop your kids at school, and the doctors you go to.”
The bill that he has introduced is already gaining traction and it is hoped that it may eventually be passed some time during 2013. And that is excellent news for smartphone apps users.
Courtesy: Forbes
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