House Commerce Lawmakers Prod Apple, Google Over Data Collection Practices

Recent reports suggest Apple and Google mobile devices improperly collect information from audible conversations without user consent, and Google is inappropriately scraping email data, wrote House Commerce Committee lawmakers to company executives Monday. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Gregg Harper, R-Miss., and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, accused the platforms of collecting “non-triggered” user audio without disclosing the practice to users. Google continues to gather sensitive email data to personalize ads, despite the platform claiming in 2017 it would stop the practice, the lawmakers wrote. Users “have a reasonable expectation of privacy when taking active steps to prevent being tracked by their device,” the lawmakers wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Page. The companies didn’t comment.