Live blog: Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on mobile privacy

Representatives from Apple and Google were among the witnesses today at a hearing called "Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy" before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, chaired by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET.

Below is our live blog of the hearing.

We'll have complete news, analysis and reaction on USA TODAY.com and in our newspaper tomorrow.

12:39 p.m. ET: Sen. Franken in closing said that "I think people have the right to know who is getting their information and how information is shared and used. I still have serious doubts those rights are being respected in law or in practice."

12:35 p.m. ET: In response to Sen. Blumenthal's request for what needs to be done to improve consumer privacy, Brookman said that the FCC needs the capacity to bring more cases. And companies should be required to get rid of data they no longer need. "In both the Sony and Epsilon cases, they were holding data they didn't need anymore."

12:25 p.m. ET: Sen. Franken asked Apple's Tribble how many apps the company has removed from the App Store because the app shared information with third parties without consent?

He said that all of the apps to date have fixed their apps rather than be removed.

Franken: "So the answer is ... zero?

Tribble: "Zero."

12:20 p.m. ET: Apple's Tribble says that some of the data in the apps come directly from police departments. "If the app intends to help the user to break the law we take them down."

Schumer responded that "the intent of these apps is to encourage people to break the law."

Tribble said that it would let Schumer know about its decision on the apps.

12:18 p.m. ET: Google's Davidson said that the company takes the issue seriously but it doesn't technically violate policy. "Would you allow an app that tells you how to cook methamphetamine?" Schumer asked.

Davidson replied that apps involving unlawful activity are taken down. He did say that Google is talking about what to do about the apps. "We agree that it is a bad thing and I agree that it is a bad thing."

12:13 p.m. PT: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asks about mobile apps like Buzz and Buzz Alert to avoid drunken driving checkpoints. "There's only one purpose and you know what that is."

When notified about the apps, RIM (Blackberry) "pulled the app down and I was disappointed that Apple and Google did not do the same," he said.

12:10 p.m. ET: Sen. Whitehouse says that he is not sure the hearing has revealed a "perspective that is ideal ... to make the Internet safer and consumers less vulnerable to abuse" and to assure that "you are getting what you paid for to load up."

11:59 a.m. ET: Google's Davidson says the company requires app developers to let consumers know "specifically what types of information, not just location information, are coming from the phone."

11:57 a.m. ET: Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., asked Apple and Google representatives how they know that app developers "are keeping their word" in regards to privacy and security?

Apple's Tribble said that in addition to examining apps "once (they are) in the App store, we do random audits ... and things like examining the network traffic" created by the app.

11:50 -- Sen. Blumenthal asks Google about charges that it had been illegally collecting wireless data while building its Street View feature and whether it planned to actually use the data for other services.

Google's Davidson replied that "We have said publicly that it was a mistake." Google was actually collecting Wi-Fi hot spot locations. "We do not intend to ever use this data and" are doing whatever regulators require in regards to destroying the data.

Blumenthal: "If it was not illegal don't you think it should be?"

Davidson: "It raises questions about the use of data in the clear."

11:45 a.m. ET: Sen. Franken asks Apple and Google representatives whether their companies would be willing to have a clear understandable privacy policy.

Davidson says that he "will take that back to our leadership. I think it's a very good question."

Tribble says he will do the same thing, but notes that more is needed "because people may not read a privacy policy." He notes that Apple puts notice of location services in operation in the user interface in the form of a purple icon next to the iPhone battery symbol. "Transparency here goes beyond what is in the privacy policy," he said.

11:40 a.m. ET: Franken asked Tribble about the confusing nature of the Apple location data database. "Does this data indicate anything about your location or doesn't it?"

Tribble's response was that the data stored is the location of as many Wi-Fi hot spots and cellphone towers as it can. That data does not actually contain any consumer information, he says. When the database is downloaded to your phone, it knows which cell towers it can receive. "The combination ... is how the phone figures out where it is without the GPS."

11:35 a.m. ET: ACT's Zuck says that while much of the focus on mobile technology is focused in California, 70% of mobile app developers are outside of California. "This is a national phenomenon" that is helping small businesses grow.

11:29 a.m. ET: Google's Davidson says that when a user gets an Android phone they are asked in clear language whether they want to turn on location services. "If they opt in, all data is anonymized."

11:26 a.m. ET: Tribble says that information caches on iPhones are used to reliably place a user's location for services. Information originally was not encrypted, but was not accessible by other apps, he says. The next major software update will add encryption, he says.

11:23 a.m. ET: Apple's Tribble says the company does "not share personally identifiable information with third parties for marketing purposes without consent ... (and) we do not track users' locations. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so."

1:19 a.m. ET: CDT's Brookman says that current law does not "map well" to mobile devices and apps. A comprehensive privacy law is needed, he says.

11:13 a.m. ET: Ashkan Soltani, who assisted the FTC in an investigation last year on Net technology and consumer privacy, says software developers need to provide consumers with "effective opt-outs" for collected data about location.

11:09 a.m. ET: Sen. Franken introduces the second panel after it takes its seats. They include:
-- Justin Brookman, director, project on consumer privacy, Center for Democracy and Technology
-- Alan Davidson, director of public policy for the Americas at Google
-- Ashkan Soltani, independent researcher and consultant
-- Guy L. "Bud" Tribble, vice president of software technology, Apple
-- Jonathan Zuck, president, Association for Competitive Technology

11:03 a.m. ET: Franken holds up a several-page printout of Apple's iPhone user agreement and says that until about a week ago opting out of location data collection did not turn off the location data collection. "Is that a deceptive trade practice?"

Rich says, "I can't comment on a specific company's practice" but says that if it is a misleading statement, "it's a deceptive practice."

10:57 a.m. ET: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asks Rich and Weinstein how well informed is the average American about the hazards "that lurk out there on the Internet?"

Rich responds that "consumers really have no idea about the layers of sharing that go on behind the scenes. They may like to use location services but they don't realize the location data may be going to ... all sorts of other parties in the chain."

When certain high-profile breaches happen, she says, "that is why people are shocked, because they had no idea their data was there."

10:51 a.m. ET: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., calls the current situation with data privacy "a Wild West" and asks whether current laws don't provide enough protection for children 13 and under from marketing and privacy.

The FTC is currently reviewing the Children's Online Protection Act, which covers those 12 and under, Rich says, to see if it was keeping up with technology."

10:48 a.m. ET: Leany says that he plans to resubmit his proposal for national standards for handling of data breaches and handling of consumer data. "You mentioned Epsilon and Sony," he says to Weinstein. "As I read more and more about it, it is more and more frightening."

10:42 a.m. ET: In response to questions from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Weinstein says that Congress could update current cyberstalking law, as it requires that perpetrators and victims be in different states. They can be on the same street, he says. Also, he notes that there is no federal law requiring companies to report data breaches to law enforcement.

10:36 a.m. ET: Sen. Franken asks DOJ's Weinstein "What is to prevent (companies like Apple and Google) from getting hacked?" Weinstein says that he is not aware of any legal requirement that company (with your data)" must secure your data safely. Congress could require companies to retain and protect data securely, he says.

10:35 a.m. ET: Sen. Franken says that it is his understanding that in a variety of cases under current federal law, companies can share location data without customer consent. Weinstein says that is correct.

10:30 a.m. ET: In response to a question from Sen. Franken, Rich says that information about children, financial information, location data and medical or health information can be misused. "If it falls in the wrong hands it can be used for stalking."

10:26 a.m. ET: Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, the second witness tells the committee that as the use of mobile devices increases, they are increasing becoming targets" of cybercriminals.

10:22 a.m. ET: The first witness Jessica Rich, deputy director of Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, says that the rapid growth of mobile devices "raises serious privacy concerns" because they are always on and can track device holders of all ages at all times.

10:16 a.m. ET: Franken says that when he first contacted Apple about its logging of users' locations, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women offered help to Franken because they say "we see case after case where a stalker or an abusive spouse has used the technology on mobile phones to stalk or harass their victims."

10:14 a.m. ET: Continuing his opening statement, Franken says, " Reports suggest that the information on our mobile devices is not being protected in the way it should be."

10:11 a.m. ET: Franken says, "Don't get me wrong. I love that I can use Google Maps, for free, no less and the same for the app on my iPad that tells me the weather."

10:10 a.m. ET: Franken days that privacy concerns used to be focused on government misuse of personal data. "We still do have to protect ourselves from government abuses and that's a big part of the digital privacy debate. But now we also have relationships with large corporations that are obtaining and storing increasingly large amounts of our information."

10:05: Sen. Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Conn., commends subcommittee chairman Franken and says that "The digital age can do some wonderful things for all of us. ... At the same time consumers face threats to privacy like at no time before."