It's the thought that counts: Illinois emits 'no location stalking' law The US state of Illinois is about to pass a law that makes it illegal to track a phone's location without the owner's consent. The bill, dubbed the Geolocation Privacy Protection Act (HB3449), has been passed by both houses in the state legislature and now awaits the signature of Governor Bruce Rauner. The bill makes it …
Though I doubt it will make much difference it is nice to see someone doing something.
Sick to death of apps wanting the size of my dick all the time, and refusing to install if I don't tell them. And even worse are the ones bundled in firmware that you cannot remove.
I wonder whether GDPR will have any bearing on the data slurping from phones?
"'Geolocation information' means information that: (i) is not the contents of a communication; (ii) is generated by or derived from, in whole or in part, the operation of a mobile device, including, but not limited to, a smart phone, tablet, or laptop computer; and (iii) is sufficient to determine or infer the precise location of that device,"
So, in other words, the apps/websites/whatever will now refuse to work unless you grant them permission to track you; and even if they don't it won't matter because "see, your honour, we can only track the owner down to a five-meter radius; it's not a *precise* location at all."
<Thumps head on desk>
"Getting permission to collect the location data will require a company to state exactly how they plan on collecting the data and what they plan on using it for."
My Xperia Mini Pro used to say "Will collect anonymous data while using GPS. Data transmission charges may apply." If you agree, everything worked. If you disagreed, GPS would not be enabled.
I used to wonder how this was legal in the EU. No indication of who, what, when, how much, rights, privacy policy... And certainly no indication beforehand that an important part of device functionality was effectively disabled unless you "agree" to this unknown data collection by unknown organisations for unknown reasons.
They will "ask for permission" on Android phones, but it will be buried in a huge long EULA type thing you have to agree to if you want to use the phone. What good does a law like this do when you can bury terms in a novel length 'contract' written by lawyers, and you can't use a product if you decline?
They are wasting time on this kind of frippery? Killinois hasn't had a working budget for going on 3-4 years, and they keep on with bills like this?
Disclaimer I'm originally from Smelliois and this bill is destined to create more issues that it solves. I see another avenue for corruption to reign supreme here...
"sufficient to determine or infer the precise location of that device"
It seems tracking without permission is fine as long as it's not precise. Town, postcode, road, house number - at which point does it count as "precise" exactly? Presumably wherever the most expensive lawyer in the room says when it eventually makes it into court, but I'd be amazed if this actually covers anything other than GPS - it can't be difficult to argue that using things like wifi and phone masts to get location aren't actually all that precise.
As a current Illinois resident. I'm completely unimpressed.
Our representatives can't pass a budget. Our credit rating is abut to be reduced to junk. We have billions of dollars in unpaid bills. This is the best they can come up with is a law allowing our Attorney General to sue companies.
FAIL because it's well deserved.
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