Privacy Not a Focus of Senate Mobile Privacy Hearing

by on May 10, 2011 · 0 comments

This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law had a hearing entitled: “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” It was a remarkably scattered affair, and I blogged three key—and very distinct—elements of it on the Cato@Liberty blog:

  • The Department of Justice used this “mobile privacy” hearing to call for increased surveillance of Internet and mobile phone users.
  • To escape a prosecutorial dead-end, Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) strongly suggested that he would outlaw the collection of radio signals. Where this government power would lead is quite profound.
  • Ignoring mobile privacy, Senator Schumer (D-NY) touted his hobby-horse, mobile app censorship.

Valid concerns with what mobile operating system providers Google and Apple have done with location information were somewhat lost in this disjointed and confused hearing.

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