Senator Franken Re-Introduces Location Privacy Bill

The  U.S. Senate’s privacy committee announced legislation aiming to give consumers more control over how information about their whereabouts is collected and used.

Senator Al Franken notifies he would introduce the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014. This act requires companies to get an explicit customer agreement before collecting and sharing location data from their devices like smartphones or tablets. The bill would also require companies collecting geo-location particulars from more than 1,000 devices to post information on the Web about the kinds of details they are gathering, how they share and use them, and how people can revoke their consent, according to language obtained by Inside GNSS. The bill, however, is about more than setting limits for consumer privacy. Franken also seeks to protect battered women and others at risk by banning the creation of “stalking apps,” which are softwares that enable someone to track a person without his or her knowledge.

More information are available here.