Re: Palm Pre [openly and brazenly] reporting GPS locations, app usage to Palm?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Richard Bennett" <richard () bennett com>
Date: August 12, 2009 7:59:28 PM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] Re:    Palm Pre [openly and brazenly] reporting GPS  
locations, app  usage to Palm?
Reply-To: <richard () bennett com>

The current thinking on privacy in the US Congress isn't troubled by  
this,
as it permits collection of personal information that's essential to
providing a service. Obviously, location information is the enabler of
"location based services," just as information about your bank balance  
is
vital to operating a cash dispenser.

The most obvious place to get location information is from the tower o  
which
your device is currently associated, and there's no triangulation  
needed.
Fine-grained location comes from the GPS, just as it does when you're  
using
a turn-by-turn navigation system.

There are a lot of interesting issues around privacy, but this isn't  
one.


Richard Bennett

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 2:44 PM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] Re: Palm Pre [openly and brazenly] reporting GPS  
locations,
app usage to Palm?



Begin forwarded message:

From: Ethan Ackerman <eackerma () u washington edu>
Date: August 12, 2009 5:26:07 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Palm Pre [openly and brazenly] reporting GPS  
locations,
app  usage to Palm?
Reply-To: eackerma () u washington edu

Greetings Dave, Lauren

I don't think you can call it "surreptitious" - Palm's privacy policy  
comes
right out and unequivocally says they collect and use it.
http://www.palm.com/us/company/privacy.html

"If you use services we provide through your Palm mobile device, we will
collect information relevant to providing the services and as you  
designate.
For example:
Location Based Services. When you use location based services, we will
collect, transmit, maintain, process, and use your location and usage  
data
(including both real time geographic information and information that  
can be
used to approximate location) in order to provide location based and  
related
services, and to enhance your device experience. "


This is just another failing of the location privacy regime in the U.S.
Nearly the only entity who CAN'T collect and disclose the location
information is the actual phone service carrier - the communications  
act at
47 USC 222 mostly restricts their reuse/disclosure of location  
information.

The real interesting question in all this is, where does the Palm app.
get the location information from?  If the application gets any data  
from
the carrier (i.e. from a tower) - that's pretty clearly a violation of  
the
law by the carrier.
The words "that can be used to approximate location" in the privacy  
policy
sound to me a lot like tower-based triangulation. Maybe
(hopefully?) Palm gets the information directly from the on board gps  
chip?

-Ethan




On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Dave Farber<dave () farber net> wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> Date: August 12, 2009 12:27:06 PDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Palm Pre surreptitiously reporting GPS locations, app usage
> to Palm?
>
>
> Dave,
>
> I have a report suggesting that the Palm Pre is "surreptitiously"
> sending GPS location data, app usage information, and perhaps other
> data to Palm servers.  I would appreciate it very much if interested
> Pre users would check out the report at: http://bit.ly/gNt9S and let
> me know if they can see similar effects (or not!)  E-mailed reports to
> lauren () vortex com or via Twitter @laurenweinstein are fine for this.
> Thanks.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, NNSquad
>  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org Founder, GCTIP -
> Global Coalition
>  for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org Founder,
> PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on
> Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
>
>
>
> Archives




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