US Senators Ask FTC to Investigate Apple and Google over Mobile Tracking

US senators are asking the FTC to investigate Apple and Google. Line of sight, mobile tracking.

A group of Democratic senators are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Apple and Google over their collection of mobile user data. In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Hahn, Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Corey A. Booker and Sarah Jacobs accuse the two giants of “unfair and misleading practices to collect and sell the personal data of hundreds of millions of mobile device users.””. He added that companies “facilitate this harmful practice by embedding certain advertising identifiers into their operating systems.”

US senators ask FTC to investigate Apple and Google

Senators note, in particular, the vulnerability that users find themselves in if their data, especially location data, is collected and transmitted. This letter was written shortly before the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade immediately made abortion illegal in states with trigger laws. They explained that data brokers are already selling location data of users visiting abortion centers. The senators explain how this information can now be used by individuals encouraged by the “headhunter”laws against those seeking abortion.

Android and Google were designed with tracking IDs for ads. While these identifiers are supposed to be anonymous, the senators say data brokers sell databases linking these identifiers to usernames, email addresses and phone numbers. Last year, Apple released an iOS update that introduced stricter rules for using this advertising identifier. In particular, applications must request explicit permission before obtaining this identifier.

Google, for its part, will enable this tracking ID by default. However, Mountain View has introduced features that make it harder to track through apps and recently committed to improving its Android privacy sandbox “to enable new, more private advertising solutions.” Google also told Ars Technica, “Google never sells user data, and Google Play strictly prohibits the sale of user data by developers… Any claims that an advertising identifier was created to facilitate the sale of data are simply false.”

Line of sight, mobile tracking

Despite the solutions proposed by the two giants, senators say they have already done harm. So they are now calling on the FTC to investigate the roles Apple and Google have played in “turning online advertising into a massive surveillance system that rewards and facilitates the rampant collection and ongoing sale of personal data.”

Ron Wyden and 41 other Democrats also called on Google last month to stop collecting and storing location data that could be used against people who have tried or want to have an abortion. More recently, another group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Mark Warner and Representative Elissa Slotkin, asked the giant to “stop manipulating search results”that offer links to anti-abortion centers to those specifically looking for information about abortion.