Apple, Google and Facebook are scheduled to testify in the U.S. Senate’s second hearing on consumer privacy today at 10AM eastern time. The hearing was called by Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance chairman Senator Jay Rockefeller and is expected to look into the the online privacy policies the companies offer their customers.
Google director of public policy for the Americas Alan Davidson is also scheduled to testify, along with Bret Taylor, Facebook’s chief technology officer.
Senator Jay Rockefeller (right)
The even follows Senator Al Franken’s hearing where Apple and Google were questioned over collecting mobile device location tracking data. In Apple’s case, the database was also copied to user’s computers during the sync process as an unencrypted file.
Apple said the database contained a list of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers within 100 miles of a user’s location. The list was maintained to offer better Location Services performance, and not track iPhone owner’s activities.
Apple has already released an iOS update that removed the database backup from computers, and reduced the amount of location data stored on devices.
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