Apple’s and Google’s practice of collecting geographical location data on their smartphone users has prompted lawmakers to quiz both companies over the privacy implications. Senator Al Franken and Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan have each summoned Apple and Google to appear before a Senate judiciary hearing on mobile privacy scheduled for May 10. Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan said in a statement:

And here’s from Senator Franken:

Other privacy watchdogs will speak at the May 10 hearing, including privacy expert Ashkan Soltani, top brass from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice and Justin Brookman, Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy. Meanwhile, CNET has learned that Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 also tracks users’ location and phones home.

Both Democratic Senator Franken and Republican Senator Ed Markey last week issued public letters to Steve Jobs and Google seeking clarification to a number of questions related to the collection of location data on iPhone and Android users without their consent. But things have already gone too far and possible probes from the governments of South Korea, France, Germany and Italy are the least of Apple’s worries. Read on…

This comes just as we learned that two Tampa, Florida-based iPhone customers have sued Apple over location tracking. An email purporting to be from Steve Jobs dismissed the reports as false, saying Apple doesn’t track anyone and instead stressing that Android does. However, The Wall Street Journal discovered that turning off location services doesn’t prevent iOS from tracking your location. The device keeps collecting this information in regular intervals by triangulating cellular towers. iOS stores this data in a database on a device, copying it to a file on your computer at each iTunes sync. The file is unencrypted unless encryption is turned on in iTunes.

Most folks rarely use iTunes encryption, however, because it slows down the syncing process considerably. As a result of this, malicious users could theoretically steal your device or a computer and access up to a year’s worth of location history. A spokesperson for Google insists that Android location sharing is an opt-in, claiming any location data sent to Google’s servers is anonymized.

Apple hasn’t yet publicly commented on the issue, but various tests confirm that neither iOS devices nor desktop iTunes send back your location data to Apple. Both companies maintain they track location in order to improve the experience for users. It’ll be interesting seeing how this plays out because privacy advocates are all over this story. Plus, there’s no doubt that Locationgate will give VIP users of iOS devices a pause, including President Obama.

  • South Korea, others to probe Apple over Locationgate? (9to5mac.com)
  • Senator Al Franken takes the iPhone location tracking issue to Steve Jobs (9to5mac.com)
  • Steve Jobs takes to email to set record straight on Location (9to5mac.com)