In a letter released Monday by House lawmakers, Apple insisted that its location-based services exist only to enhance the user experience and that the company does not activate these services until it has received express consent from users.
"Apple collects location data for only one purpose – to enhance and improve the services we can offer to our customers," Bruce Sewell, general counsel and senior vice president of legal and government affairs at Apple, wrote in a letter to Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton. "Apple is committed to giving our customers clear notice and control over their information, and we believe our products do this in a simple and elegant way."
Sewell's letter comes after Markey and Barton, co-chairmen of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, penned a June 24 letter to Apple asking about an updated privacy policy that said Apple could "collect, use, and share precise location data, including real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device."
The chairmen asked Apple to provide detailed information about which Apple devices collected location-based information and why.
Four Apple devices currently collect geographic location data: the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4, and the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G, Apple said. To a lesser extent, older iPhone models, the iPad Wi-Fi, the iPod touch, Mac computers with Snow Leopard, and Safari 5 also collect similar information.
Apple started collecting location-based data and Wi-Fi information in January 2008.
"Apple has always provided its customers with the ability to control the location-based service capabilities of their devices," Sewell said. "In fact, Apple now provides customers even greater control over such capabilities for devices running the current version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 4."
The updated software, iOS 4, lets customers pick and choose the apps with which they do not want to share location information, even if the global, location-based capabilities on their device are turned on, Apple said. An arrow icon, meanwhile, alerts iOS 4 users if an app is using or has recently used location-based information.
Even without iOS 4, Apple said, customers "have always had the option" to turn off all location-based services. Apple also requires express customer consent when any app or Web site requests location-based information for the first time, Sewell wrote.
What type of data does Apple collect? Like Google, Apple collects information from Wi-Fi access point and cell towers for its location-based services. In fact, those running iPhone OS versions 1.1.3 and 3.1 pulls information from databases run by Google and Skyhook Wireless.
With the iPhone OS 3.2 update released in April 2010, Apple switched to its own database of known cell-tower locations and Wi-Fi access points. The cell tower information is available to anyone with certain commercially available software, Sewell said.
On the Wi-Fi data, Apple does not collect wireless network names (SSID) or data that is traveling over those networks, known as "payload data," he said. It does, however, collected information when a user makes a location-based request on a Mac computer with Snow Leopard or via Safari 5. Users, however, must provide their consent before the information is accessed, Sewell said.
Google found itself in hot water recently when it was revealed that the Wi-Fi data collection devices installed on its Street View cars accidentally collected payload data that was being transmitted over unencrypted networks. The move prompted privacy inquiries from around the globe, though Google said the data collected was not accessed and did not include personally identifiable information.
Apple also collects diagnostic information from certain iPhones to gather information about dropped calls and collects GPS information from iPhones running OS 3.2 or iOS 4. The company's iAd network also collects location information when an ad request is made if a user has their location-based services turned on.
Rep. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he appreciated Apple's response.
"Consumer consent is the key to assessing the adequacy of privacy protections, and Apple's responses provide examples of how consumers can grant or withhold consent in their usage of Apple products," Markey said in a statement. "I will continue to closely monitor this issue to ensure that consumers are empowered to keep their personal information private, if they choose, while still enjoying the benefits that accompany continuously evolving technological innovations."
Rep. Barton, a Texas Republican, said the challenges associated with the collection of location-based information are "particularly disconcerting" and that he remains "concerned about privacy policies that run on for pages and pages."
"I hope every business that uses information for advertising and marketing purposes will work toward more transparency and complete disclosure about their practices, as well as robust security for the information they hold," Barton concluded.