FTC Lobbies To Be Top Cop For Geolocation 39
chicksdaddy (814965) writes 'As the U.S. Senate considers draft legislation governing the commercial use of location data, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is asking Congress to make it — not the Department of Justice — the chief rule maker and enforcer of policies for the collection and sharing of geolocation information, the Security Ledger reports.
Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology that the Commission would like to see changes to the wording of the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014 (LPPA) . The LPPA is draft legislation introduced by Sen. Al Franken that carves out new consumer protections for location data sent and received by mobile phones, tablets and other portable computing devices. Rich said that the FTC, as the U.S. Government's leading privacy enforcement agency, should be given rule making and enforcement authority for the civil provisions of the LPPA. The current draft of the law instead gives that authority to the Department of Justice.
The LPPA updates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to take into account the widespread and availability and commercial use of geolocation information provided. LPPA requires that companies get individuals' permission before collecting location data off of smartphones, tablets, or in-car navigation devices, and before sharing it with others.
It would prevent what Franken refers to as "GPS stalking," preventing companies from collecting location data in secret. LPPA also requires companies to reveal the kinds of data they collect and how they share and use it, bans the development, operation, and sale of GPS stalking apps and requires the federal government to collect data on GPS stalking and facilitate reporting of GPS stalking by the public.'
Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology that the Commission would like to see changes to the wording of the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014 (LPPA) . The LPPA is draft legislation introduced by Sen. Al Franken that carves out new consumer protections for location data sent and received by mobile phones, tablets and other portable computing devices. Rich said that the FTC, as the U.S. Government's leading privacy enforcement agency, should be given rule making and enforcement authority for the civil provisions of the LPPA. The current draft of the law instead gives that authority to the Department of Justice.
The LPPA updates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to take into account the widespread and availability and commercial use of geolocation information provided. LPPA requires that companies get individuals' permission before collecting location data off of smartphones, tablets, or in-car navigation devices, and before sharing it with others.
It would prevent what Franken refers to as "GPS stalking," preventing companies from collecting location data in secret. LPPA also requires companies to reveal the kinds of data they collect and how they share and use it, bans the development, operation, and sale of GPS stalking apps and requires the federal government to collect data on GPS stalking and facilitate reporting of GPS stalking by the public.'
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This will not be independent of "any support network". The Earth's magnetic field is constantly shifting. To use for location with precision and accuracy at small scales will require regular updates (even if not in-the-field) to the internal maps of the device. Already, compass users must adjust declination occasionally. In the short term, disturbances to the ionosphere and magnetosphere dominate the majority of disruptions. Solar storms are also problematic.
TL;DR: It's a great technology to have as one-mor
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There has to be a way to determine coordinates in order for modern phone tech to work. If GPS is down, tower locations come out to what should be a similar answer.
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Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending upon the type of location technology used.
From: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/wire... [fcc.gov]
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Within 50-300 meters accuracy? Thinking they can usually do that by triangulation from 2 cell-towers.
1 cellphone-company was offering special rates when you called from home - they supposedly did this by a set of triangulation-operations to map out where your home is, and then later simply check where you are when you call.
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Yes.
As I understand it, E-911 required that the carriers tell the 911 where the person is to within 300 feet. To handle this, some carriers just mandated that the phones have GPS. Other carriers used triangulation from the cell tower. So you can use a cellphone without GPS, but that doesn't mean that the carriers won't know where you are.
In fact, the carriers used to (and perhaps still do) have a service where they would text you directions to where you wanted to go based upon where you were. No GPS req
Re: Cellphones without GPS (Score:1)
Carriers can tell where you are without GPS, by seeing how far you are from a tower, and comparing that to how far you are from another.
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...and then adding a third--triangulation.
As I understand it, though, it's a little easier said than done to get the required accuracy for E-911. But it isn't impossible. I believe it was AT&T that went the triangulation route and it was Verizon that just put GPS in all the phones. But I could be wrong...
I'm here from the government and I'm here to help (Score:3)
Just pass a law and let the states or local federal courts deal with it. The government doesnt need anymore power.
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Thanks, but no thanks (Score:4, Insightful)
Rich said that the FTC, as the U.S. Government's leading privacy enforcement agency, should be given rule making and enforcement authority for the civil provisions of the LPPA.
Considering how existing US privacy enforcement is an absolute joke, I think I'd rather try something new instead of "more of the same." Maybe the FTC could better spend their time, I don't know, jailing the traders that broke the economy?
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Maybe the FTC could better spend their time, I don't know, jailing the traders that broke the economy?
There's an idea. They certainly couldn't do a worse job of it than the SEC, right?
Revolving doors (Score:3)
Since these "commissions" like the FTC, FDA, and FCC have even more obvious problems with revolving doors then even the DoJ does, I doubt it would be a good idea at all to hand this off to the likes of an FTC staffed by former Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and telecom execs.
Where does it limit the .gov's use of GPS data? (Score:3)
So, according to the summary, it puts limits on commercial use of GPS tracking data. Where does it limit government use of GPS tracking data?
I see a flaw in their thinking. (Score:2)
It would prevent what Franken refers to as "GPS stalking," preventing companies from collecting location data in secret.
You mean, punish companies that get caught collecting location data in secret?
If risk of getting caught * value of data collection average fine, then profit!
Laws don't prevent anything, they discourage it.
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Laws don't prevent anything, they discourage it.
Not even that. In this case all it means is an updated EULA, where buried on page 15 will be a statement about their collection of location data, which everyone will simply click "agree" to. There will be a few stories about it on /. ("So-and-so big company collecting all your location data!"), and nobody but /. readers will care so long as the app continues to let them put fish-faced selfies somewhere that their "friends" (really their friend's friend's older cousin's barista's little sister) can see it
Seems reasonable for FTC to do this (Score:1)
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You mean the Al Franken who graduated cum laude from Harvard with a degree in Government and who visited the troops in Kosovo and Iraq on some of his seven USO tours. Author of five published books. You can point to someone better qualified for the Senate -- perhaps some Wall Street titan or Fortune 500 CEO?
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Last I checked the only qualifications you need to be in the Senate are that you be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years at the time of election to the Senate, and a resident of the state one is elected to represent in the Senate. You seem to be under the impression there is some kind of unwritten standard that isn't being upheld - nothing could be further from the truth.
You're awfully quick to dismiss a Harvard degree in government and a long time career as a political activist/sa
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Don't like being tracked? Turn off your phone (Score:2)
The problem with notification legislation it does nothing to address real world privacy violations. Lets look at Windows phone 8 for instance.
When you first set it up and wade thru arrays of privacy notices, license agreements and constantly nagged to allow something to upload all of your data, log your actions and tracking your location.
Even after answering no and everything off the system is configured in such a manner when you turn on "location" to use a local mapping application you also give MS the ri
Web browsers (Score:2)
Why is it that some websites/servers ask to access my GPS location? I am cool with them knowing my _general_ area like city or or town but not my drone-strikeable exact location down to a few meters. I blame the web browser. The application or web browser should give the user a choice of how detailed of a location (or even a bogus one) to pass on to a particular site. Actually, you know what .. I blame the operating system too. Why should locations be exact or nothing? When an application requests your loca
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In Firefox, try Geolocater [mozilla.org].