by Kevin Coates | Apr 23, 2011 | Apple, Google
An interesting article that covers a lot of the issues about the latest iPhone (and now probably all smartphones) data protection controversy. The current debate raises several different issues: – is this legal under EU data protection rules? It looks as though several national DPOs are going to be looking at this; – do users who have agreed to the terms of service really know what it is they are agreeing to? Or is this a case of users accepting the default settings without really understanding – or perhaps caring? – possibly also the importance of network effects. It’s not clear so far if this location data is being kept by the operating system companies – Apple, Google, RIM etc – to improve their services, or is being passed on to network operators to help improve their networks. If the former, then we have another network effect – the more users a company has that uses your location services, then the more location feedback a company will receive, and the more it can improve the location services. Not a competition law problem, but potentially relevant to looking at questions of market power and barriers to entry. This article titled “iPhones and Android phones building vast databases for Google and Apple” was written by Charles Arthur, for The Guardian on Friday 22nd April 2011 16.20 UTC Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian’s revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners’ movements. iPhones and Android smartphones swap data – which...