Some Democratic senators sent a letter to FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, asking for an investigation into Google and Apple's efforts to collect user data.
The Senate has recently paid close attention to the privacy and data practices of Big Tech. We regularly hear senators subpoena the CEOs of these companies for hearings or ask the FTC or similar agencies to investigate Big Tech. Now, Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Cory A. Booker, and Sara Jacobs have asked the FTC to investigate Google and Apple.
According to the report, these senators believe that both companies “engaged in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of personal data of hundreds of millions of mobile phone users.” The senators also say that these companies “facilitated these harmful practices by creating tracking IDs specifically for advertising on their mobile operating systems.”
Google has consistently denied the claims
The company has always denied these claims, saying: “Google never sells user data, and Google Play strictly prohibits the sale of user data by developers… Any claim that the advertising ID was created to facilitate the sale of data is simply false.”
Google has also promised to improve Android ’s Privacy Sandbox to address private advertising solutions . However, none of these measures have addressed the senators’ concerns. Lawmakers are now asking the FTC to investigate Google and Apple’s role in “transforming online advertising into a pervasive surveillance system that incentivizes and facilitates the unfettered collection and ongoing sale of Americans’ personal data.”
In recent years, Google and Apple have faced multiple lawsuits over their data practices. Recently, the European Union urged Google to end its monopoly and let rival platforms run ads on YouTube.
Wyden and 41 other Democratic lawmakers also urged Google last month to stop collecting and retaining location data that could be used against people who have had or sought abortions. More recently, another group of lawmakers led by Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Elissa Slotkin called on the company to “combat manipulative search results” that lead people looking for anti-abortion clinics.
Information source: androidheadlines.com
