Gee, Microsoft wasn't invited, nor Sony...

Rico says Tanzina Vega has an article in The New York Times about the recent Congressional privacy hearings:

Saying there has been a fundamental shift for cellphone users in determining “who has their information and what they’re doing with it”, Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, called a Congressional hearing to question executives from both Google and Apple on data location and mobile devices. The hearing was the first for the newly formed Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law, led by Senator Franken.
Lawmakers on the panel all acknowledged that mobile devices and location-based technology were useful for individuals and businesses, but cited growing concerns about how much data was being shared with third-party companies, the potential for data security breaches and the threat of criminal activity, like stalking, as issues affecting mobile privacy. Regulators also raised concerns about the use of location-based technology by children who use smartphones and other devices.
“These breaches of privacy can have real consequences for real people,” Mr. Franken said.
The hearings follow a recent series of reports that Apple collected user location data from its iPad and iPhone devices and Google from its Android smartphones. Both Google and Apple have said the location data they collected was not personally identifiable and was used to send users better advertisements and promotions when they opted to receive certain services.
Alan Davidson, the director of public policy for the Americas at Google, said the opt-in screens that users saw when they used an Android device was a method the company had used to make choices clearer to consumers. The options presented to the user are “in plain language”, Mr. Davidson said, adding that the data is anonymous and not traceable to a specific device. Mr. Davidson said Google would support comprehensive privacy legislation.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, pressed Mr. Davidson on the issue of inadvertent collection of data from unsecured wi-fi networks by Google’s Street View cars. “We don’t intend to ever use this data. We intend to dispose of it in any way regulators say that we should,” Mr. Davidson said.
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, questioned Mr. Davidson and Guy L. Tribble, the vice president of software technology for Apple, on why the companies had refused to remove from their app stores some mobile applications that alerted users to sobriety checkpoints.
“Applications that share information about sobriety checkpoints are not a violation of our content policy,” Mr. Davidson said. Mr. Tribble added that Apple was “examining the situation”, but had not yet removed the apps from the store.
The United States currently does not have a comprehensive privacy law, other than the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that was passed in 1986 and the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission, which can bring actions against companies for deceptive practices. Jessica Rich, a deputy director with the FTC, said the commission had not yet taken a position on whether there was a need for legislation but said that most consumers were unaware of the “layers of sharing that go on behind the scenes” with regard to the data they have on their mobile devices.
Ashkan Soltani, a security researcher, called for increased transparency and better definitions of the terms, like what opt-in really means and how third parties are defined. Mr. Soltani also underscored the ambiguity in how companies like Google and Apple define location. Apple has said it does not collect a user’s exact location but instead collects information on nearby cellphone towers and wi-fi hot spots. “In many cases the location that this data refers to is the location of your device or somewhere near it,” Mr. Soltani said, adding that the proximity could sometimes be as close as one hundred feet from a user. “I would consider that my location.”
The frenzy over data collection has been felt in the international community as well. Police in South Korea raided Google’s South Korean offices after suspicions that its mobile advertising unit, AdMob, had been collecting location data on users without their consent. Regulators in France, Germany, and Italy are also examining Apple’s location data collection practices in light of recent events.

Rico says it still sounds like a skit from Saturday Night Live, given the Senator's background.