- From: Erik Wilde <dret@berkeley.edu>
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:59:10 -0700
- To: Nick Doty <npdoty@ISchool.Berkeley.EDU>, public-privacy@w3.org
- CC: David Singer <singer@apple.com>
hello.
> The aggregation issue is also a concern here: if a
> Firefox user gives her location to several different sites over the
> course of the day, does she realize that Google obtains the whole set of
> locations associated with a single unique identifier?
isn't the reason for that that the API as it is now does not say
anything about how the location exposed through the API is obtained? the
API only talks about how applications (consumers of the API) may be of
concern privacy-wise, but it is silent about the fact that in many
cases, the implementation of the API also has some privacy implications,
in particular if the location is not determined locally on the device
(via GPS) but through a location service provider. this becomes
particularly relevant if that provider stores the location profile of a
user, and also is a major mobile advertising player. the recent press
coverage of the updated iPhone/iOS 4 privacy policy reflected the fact
that the "back-end" of the API also can be very relevant from the
location privacy point of view.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apple-new-ios-new-location-privacy-policies/36092
kind regards,
erik wilde tel:+1-510-6432253 - fax:+1-510-6425814
dret@berkeley.edu - http://dret.net/netdret
UC Berkeley - School of Information (ISchool)
Received on Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:14:00 UTC