By John D. McKinnon
House lawmakers are demanding information from Alphabet Inc. and
Apple Inc. about how the companies handle users' personal
information, including spoken words, email content and location
data.
In letters to the companies' CEOs, leaders of the powerful House
Energy and Commerce Committee said recent media reports and related
information obtained by the panel have raised questions about how
the companies gather and use consumers' information.
The letters show that consumer-privacy concerns in Washington
have spread beyond Facebook Inc., which has been in regulators' and
lawmakers' crosshairs this past year over the sharing of user
information with a data-analytics firm that had ties to the Donald
Trump presidential campaign.
The lawmakers' letter to Alphabet CEO Larry Page said recent
reports indicate that its Android smartphone operating system
collects extensive user-location data and reports it back to
Alphabet's Google unit even when location services are
disabled.
Considering that many consumers likely believe that their phones
aren't actively tracking them when the location services are turned
off, "this alleged behavior is troubling," according to the letter,
which was signed by the committee's chairman, Greg Walden (R.,
Ore.), as well as three subcommittee chairmen, Reps. Gregg Harper
(R., Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Robert Latta (R.,
Ohio).
The letter to Alphabet also raised questions concerning a report
last week in The Wall Street Journal that Google continues to allow
third parties to access content of users' emails, even though the
company itself said last year it would halt scanning the contents
of emails to "keep privacy and security paramount."
The lawmakers' letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook raised fewer issues,
but posed similar questions about whether Apple smartphones collect
and transmit extensive location data. The letter says that Apple's
actions "raise questions about how Apple device users' data is
protected and when it is shared and compiled," given that Apple
provides access to apps that appear contradictory to its own
privacy principles, the letter says.
Both letters also noted that some recent media reports have
suggested that smartphones in general can and sometimes do collect
extensive audio data that can be accessed by third parties, even
when users might not be talking to the phone's virtual
assistant.
Google said in a statement on Monday: "Protecting our users'
privacy and securing their information is of the utmost importance
to Google. We look forward to answering the committee's
questions."
Apple declined to comment. The company provides information on
its data practices online that answer some of the questions.
The letters go on to seek detailed information about the
companies' practices, particularly when it comes to tracking users'
locations, collecting audio data from users' conversations and
sharing their data with third parties, such as app developers.
The letters to both firms ask whether their devices "have the
capability to listen to consumers" even when the user isn't
engaging a virtual assistant. If so, lawmakers want to know how
that data is being used.
The letters ask whether the firms could control or limit the
data collected by third-party apps available on their devices.
Congress also is asking Google for "a comprehensive list of the
companies with access to a user's email contents on Gmail," as well
as details about what restrictions it places on the use of email
data by app makers.
Hundreds of app developers scan the inboxes of millions of Gmail
users who signed up for email-based services, commonly using free
apps and services to hook users into giving up access to their
inboxes without clearly stating what data they collect and what
they are doing with it, current and former employees of these
companies told The Journal.
In a Google blog post last week, the company said: "Transparency
and control have always been core data privacy principles, and
we're constantly working to ensure these principles are reflected
in our products."
Apple says it has aimed to protect user privacy by encrypting
some sensitive information such as iMessages and randomizing other
information it gathers such as map navigation so that it can't be
linked to an individual's device.
In an aim to bolster user privacy, the company last month issued
new rules for apps available on its App Store, saying apps that
access users' photos and contact lists can't use that information
to build databases. However, the new rules also raised concerns
that the company's previous policies contained loopholes allowing
apps to collect and resell sensitive information such as photo
locations, privacy advocates say.
Agencies including the Federal Trade Commission already are
investigating Facebook, and some privacy groups have called for
other technology companies' practices to be probed as well.
The letters also dial up pressure on major tech firms to tell
lawmakers and the public more about their privacy practices.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has been urging other firms to
send their CEOs to testify at a hearing about their practices. But
so far, no hearing has been scheduled.
The letters mark the first time the committee has queried
companies besides Facebook concerning specific consumer-privacy
issues. The committee has been looking more broadly at other
topics, including the use of algorithms for a number of services
such as content sharing.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 09, 2018 18:09 ET (22:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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