Is this a surprise to anyone? Two Michigan women have now filed a suit with Google over location data collected by Android devices. This a week after Apple was named in a lawsuit citing privacy violations with the iPhone and it's location based services. According to Detroit News, The $50 million lawsuit against Google seeks to stop the company from selling phones with software that can track a user's location.
The plaintiffs Julie Brown and Kayla Molaski, are seeking class action status for the suit. Their lawyer, Steven Budaj, argues in the complaint that the tracking of Android owners' location "puts users at serious risk of privacy invasions, including stalking."
As if I don't already have politicians telling me what I should eat, and demanding that I pay more taxes so that Illegals and other Americans who don't work can have healthcare, now I have two women in Michigan, trying to dictate what I can and can't do with my phone. Hey ladies, I'm on AT&T! There is a whole lot that they won't let me do with my phone, like for example, using it as a phone in Southwest Virginia. But sharing my location isn't a problem with them!
Here is the bad news for this suit: All location based sharing is done with the user's permission. When you click the "I Agree" box, whether you read it and agree with it or not, then you agree. Google has made no secret that it collects location information including GPS current location, timestamps, nearby Wi-Fi network addresses, and device Ids from Android devices. However it said that the data was untraceable to a specific individual and if users really wanted, they could disable the GPS feature. Of course if they did they would not get much function out of maps and other location-based services.
To Kayla Molaski and Julie Brown: Lots of people choose to share their locations with family and friends, What they have problems with, is people like you trying to dictate what they can and can't do with their mobile devices. Stalking is certainly illegal but existed long before Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. Location services are a means a stalker can use, just like digging through a person's garbage.
Buds who Blog