CDT Comments to the FCC on Location Privacy

Mobile phones and tablets have exploded in popularity in recent years, and all evidence indicates that this trend will continue. However, mobile devices store and transmit a particularly personal set of data. These devices typically allow third parties to access personal information such as contact lists, pictures, browsing history, and identifying information more readily than in traditional internet web browsing. The devices also use and transmit information about a consumer’s precise geolocation information as consumers travel from place to place. In the US, a number of measures currently exist to protect electronic communications, including location information. Unfortunately, technology has far outpaced these protections in both the commercial and government contexts. In these comments, CDT argued that an update is long overdue.