Apple, Google to Testify in Senate Privacy Hearing Tuesday

Apple and Google will both be present to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, May 10. Both companies will be answering questions about their customer privacy policies related to iPhone and Android device tracking and information sharing.

iPhone location data mapApple will be at the Senate’s privacy hearing on Tuesday

The two companies were called to the hearing by Senator Al Franken after security researchers released an application that plotted the cell tower and Wi-Fi hotspot data stored on iPhone owner’s devices. The data was also saved in an unencrypted backup file on user’s computers during the sync process.

Following the iPhone news, word surfaced that Google’s Android OS was logging even more data and transmitting it to the Internet search company several times an hour.

Apple claimed the data stored on iPhones was there to help Location Services performance, and that the data wasn’t supposed to be backed up. The company also said storing a year’s worth of data was a bug that would be addressed in a software update.

Apple released iOS 4.3.3 last week specifically to address the data logging issue.

Bud Tribble, Apple’s vice president of Software Technology will be testifying on behalf of Apple at Senator Franken’s hearing.