Congressional Hearings on Location Privacy

There has already been a good deal reported about the recent Congressional hearings regarding the privacy implications associated with the collection and use of location data on mobile devices. It should not be any surprise that Congress is taking a look at this issue, given the growing number of devices and associated consumer applications as well as the potential implications associated with this technology. Nor should it be surprising to hear Representative Rick Boucher state that future legislation will likely include provisions addressing this issue, as Congress been down this road before, including proposed legislation from then Senator John Edwards. In fact, it would probably be prudent for all companies in the U.S. that collect or use customer location data to become familiar with the privacy regimes associated with medical records (HIPAA), consumer credit (Fair Credit Reporting Act) and financial information (Graham -Leach- Bliley Act), as Congress and the Federal Trade Commission appear to have a framework they like to use on privacy matters. It is very likely they will try to apply a similar framework for location data.