US lawmakers are grilling Steve Jobs over recent tweaks to Apple's privacy policy allowing the company and its partners to collect and share "precise location data" of all iTunes and App Store customers.
US Representatives Edward J. Markey and Joe Barton, the co-chairs of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, sent a letter to the Apple CEO on Thursday, a few days after the updated privacy policy was reported. In it, they called on Jobs to explain how the new terms don't run afoul of Section 222 of the Federal Communications Act (PDF), which prohibits the sharing of customer location information without the permission of the user.
"It is our understanding that Apple's consumers cannot use newly-purchased iPads, iPhones, Apple computers or purchase products for existing Apple products from the iTunes music store unless they accept the revised terms and conditions and include agreeing to the collection and sharing of geographical location data," they wrote (PDF). "Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned about the impact the collection of such data could have on the privacy of Apple's customers."
The lawmakers peppered Jobs with nine questions, including the following:
- What internal procedures are in place to ensure that any location data is stored "anonymously in a form that does not personally identify" individual consumers?
- Please explain in detail why Apple decided to begin collecting location data at this time, and how it intends to use the data.
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