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“They’re trying to quell an understandable storm of concern,” said John Simpson, director of the privacy project at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group. But he added, “It sounds like they’re going to continue doing a lot of stuff that is potentially problematic.”
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“No one has really understood the extent of the data collection going on with these spy phones,” said John M. Simpson, Washington-based director of nonprofit Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project. “Last week, it started to become clear just how much was going on.”
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Still, the report on Google’s data collection policy yesterday prompted advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, based in Washington, D.C., to ask for a law to ensure that phone users can choose not to be tracked. “These aren’t smartphones, they are spy phones,” said John Simpson, director of the group’s privacy project.
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John M. Simpson, director of advocacy group Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, said this is the latest sign there should be an online “do not track” list. “These aren’t smartphones; they are spy phones,” Simpson said. “The mobile world is the Wild West of the Internet where these tech giants seem to think anything goes.”
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – New details of how tech giants Google and Apple spy on users of their smartphones demonstrate the need for Do Not Track Me legislation that would cover mobile devices, Consumer Watchdog said today.
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“These aren’t smartphones — they are spy phones,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “Consumers must have the right to control whether their data is gathered and how it is used. People don’t realize the absolute gold mine of data about their life that exists inside their smartphone,” he added. “There really needs to be an educational process started so that people will begin to understand that.”
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A number of recent public opinion surveys have shown support for do-not-track mechanisms. Consumer Watchdog said a poll commissioned last summer showed that 84% of respondents wanted to prevent online companies from tracking personal information without a person’s explicit, written approval.
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John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said it’s still unclear whether any of the federal measures will pass and, in any case, there’s no reason for the Golden State to wait. It could put pressure on federal legislators and regulators to catch up. He noted that a law implementing the “Do Not Call” register, which many see as an analog to “Do Not Track,” passed in California before a federal law was enacted.
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Privacy advocates welcomed the idea of a grand jury probe, saying consumers often had little information about how the apps they downloaded were sharing data collected from their mobile devices. “I think of them as spy phones, not smart phones,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project.
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In December, the FTC recommended that the technology industry create a do-no-track tool for Web users. In the following months, Google, Mozilla and Microsoft all announced do-not-track features in their browsers. Those browsers offer simple ways for Web users to opt out of tracking efforts, said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy director.
