Apple, Google Location Data Tracking Drawing Ire

Privacy watchers and politicians say so, and they're calling the two tech titans to the mat to explain themselves.

It should come as no surprise that location-based data is used on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, as they feature several radios that can pinpoint a location and there are dozens of applications that require or request a user's whereabouts.

But recent reports show that Apple and Google are retaining that information in hopes of bulking up massive databases of location-based data culled from users.

These databases could help Apple and Google tap into the $2.9 billion market for location-based services, a market that is expected to skyrocket to $8.3 billion in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported this week in a story chronicling Apple's and Google's battle for location data.

Some Google Android devices reportedly collect location information every few seconds and transmit that data to Google relatively frequently. That data also includes the name, location and signal strength of Wi-Fi networks nearby and other unique identifiers. Apple also "intermittently" collects location data, like GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi information and other data, The Journal revealed.

The tracking trouble came to light when researchers this week discovered that the iOS 4 operating system in Apple's iPhone and iPad 3G are keeping track of everywhere their owners go. Reports indicate that that recorded data, which includes locations by latitude and longitude and stores it unencrypted, in some instances stores hundreds of instances a day for up to a year.

The collection and transmission of this data has raised the ire of privacy watchdogs and some lawmakers, who question why the data is needed and fear it could have serious ramifications.

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter Apple asking why the company is storing customer-location data on its mobile devices, according to The L.A. Times. And in a statement, Markey cautioned Apple to safeguard personal location information "to ensure that an iPhone doesn't become an iTrack," The Journal noted.

"I am concerned about this report and the consequences of this feature for individuals' privacy," Markey wrote. Markey then listed a number of questions about the location file, how Apple users the data collected, whether the company intentionally created it to track users and whether it's used for commercial purposes.

And in a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Senator Al Franken notes that storing location data in an unsecured fashion could pose dangers if a user's iPhone or iPad falls into the wrong hands or if the data is somehow compromised.

"Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user's home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken-over the past months or even a year," Franken wrote in the letter to Jobs.