Four U.S. lawmakers want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple and Google’s alleged “harmful practices” that collect and profit from personal information. Even as Apple’s privacy moves reportedly cost Facebook billions in lost revenue, four Democrats don’t think it’s enough.
Senator Ron Wyden (D, Oregon), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Massachusetts), Senator Cory Booker (D, New Jersey), and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D, California), have written to Federal Trade Commission, calling for an ongoing investigation into the matter.
The four allege that Apple and Google “deliberately facilitate these harmful practices by building specific ad tracking IDs into their mobile operating systems,” according to the Wall Street Journal. They acknowledged, however, that Apple has made changes, while Google said it would add similar protections.
“However, until recently, Apple enabled this tracking identifier by default and required consumers to turn it off through confusing phone settings,” the letter said. “Google still has this tracking identifier enabled by default and has not even provided consumers with it to date. ” Opportunity to opt-out.
These identifiers fuel the market for unregulated data brokers, by creating a single piece of information tied to the device that data brokers and their clients can use to link to other data about consumers.”
“[For example,] a particular consumer can often be easily identified in an anonymized location record data set, simply by looking at where they slept at night,” the letter said.
The four lawmakers, speaking just minutes after the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling, argued that after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, in which American women will no longer have the autonomy to choose abortion of their choice, how to track through such systems People’s problems are more prominent.
“In states where abortion is illegal, prosecutors will soon be able to gain authorization to obtain the location information of anyone who has visited an abortion facility,” the four lawmakers said. “Private actors will also be incentivized by state bounty laws to pass Obtain location information to track down women who have or are seeking abortions.”
As such, the four want the FTC to investigate “Apple and Google’s role in turning advertising into a powerful surveillance system that incentivizes and facilitates the unrestricted collection and ongoing sale of Americans’ personal data.” Apple’s app tracking transparency, designed to limit possible personal identification, was released in October 2021 as part of iOS 14.5.
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