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Senate Bill Would Curb Collection Of Wireless Location Data |
By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
11 Jul 2001, 1:03 PM CST
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. today introduced legislation that would force wireless providers to obtain consent from customers before harvesting their location information.
The Location Privacy Protection Act, would require wireless service providers to notify their customers when collecting location information that can be gleaned by homing in on the signal transmitted by wireless devices.
The bill would cover all wireless products that can be used to determine a customers specific location, including cell phones, pagers, handheld computers and global positioning systems.
If you have a cell phone in your pocket or Onstar in your car, somebody knows where you are at all times, Edwards said. This bill is designed to make sure that no one misuses your personal information. We need to get ahead of the curve on what will soon be a real problem.
Edwards said his bill would not interfere with public safety and rescue services that rely on location information to find callers in distress.
Earlier this year, Edwards introduced a similar bill, the Spyware Control and Privacy Protection Act, legislation designed to limit the use of software programs that secretly track users Web surfing habits.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com
13:03 CST
(20010711 /WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL, TELECOM, BUSINESS/TELECOMDOME/PHOTO)