While Apple and Google have been summoned to testify before a Congress Subcommittee, both companies are scrambling to gather
the evidence that their creepy tactics are well, just creepy and not illegal. Though Google should have learnt the lesson from all the investigations it had to face in various European countries, seems like it chose not to. But rest assured, Verizon is not going to make any such mistake. The carrier company will now attach a peel off sticker to its cellphone screens, which will warn the users that they may have their locations tracked.
Verizon, on its part, claimed that the step has not been taken in response to recent fiasco, but that it is an initiative that the company had been planning for quite some time. The company also clarified that it retains personal identification data for good seven years. This includes location details as well. Though, its competitors such as AT&T and Sprint may hold such data for up to five years. So, now consumers need to be wary of their handset makers, carrier companies and app providers as all these are perfectly capable of tracking your location it their own different ways.
Microsoft too has come clean on the issue as it admitted that its mobile platform Windows Phone 7 can be used for tracking location. It also explained its location tracking practices. Like Google, Microsoft too has claimed that its location tracking functions are purely opt-in. This means that WP7 tracks a user only after receiving explicit permission to do so. The data collected is then kept in a database maintained by Microsoft. Apple, so far, has not provided any explanation.
Microsoft also said that it uses the database for providing location based services. It also went on to explain the methodology used for collecting the data, which, believe us, was just the technical yakkity yak and then it chose to ignore the more important questions like the duration for which it retains the data and so on. So, beware, it is not just Google and Apple snooping on you.