[LINK] Google faces $50 million lawsuit over Android location tracking

[Richard Chirgwin]

My more detailed response to the Gizmodo "don't worry, be happy".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/device_data_collection/

I suspect that "keeping the WiFi databases updated" isn't a good reason. 
It arguably reveals information about a carriage service without consent 
- which is in breach of the Telecommunications Act.

Take it this way (paraphrasing myself in the article). My WiFi device is 
connected to my broadband service: if Apple records it using a passing 
iPhone, it is recording and using information about my broadband service 
(indirectly). And if it's just doing it as a kind of data grab by a 
third party (because I don't own an iPhone, so I cannot give consent) - 
that's clearly not allowed under the Telecoms Act.

(I wish I'd looked over the Act back in the Google StreetView days - 
it's more than just some Privacy Act thing).

RC

On 1/05/11 11:26 AM, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> On 1/05/2011 11:16 AM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> It appears the purpose of all this tracking by google and apple is to keep their wifi databases updated.  I wonder now whether Microsoft and Nokia and possibly others are doing this too.
> http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/04/chart-do-apple-google-microsoft-know-your-every-step/
>