This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law had a hearing entitled: "Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy." It was a remarkably scattered affair, and I blogged three key—and very distinct—elements of it on the Cato@Liberty blog:
The Department of Justice used this "mobile privacy" hearing to
call for increased surveillance of Internet and mobile phone users.
To escape a prosecutorial dead-end, Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) strongly suggested that he would outlaw the collection of radio signals. Where this government power would lead is
quite profound.
Ignoring mobile privacy, Senator Schumer (D-NY) touted his hobby-horse,
mobile app censorship.
Valid concerns with what mobile operating system providers Google and Apple have done with location information were somewhat lost in this disjointed and confused hearing.
Published on May 10, 2011 14:13