U.S. Congress has sent an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking for more information about its Sensorvault database that’s reportedly being used by law enforcement agencies to solve crime cases.
Last week, we reported a story based upon NY Times findings that revealed how using a “geofence” warrant, authorities obtain location history of all devices from Google’s Sensorvault database that pass through a crime scene over a certain time period.
For those unaware, Google maintains Sensorvault database over nearly the past decade which contains precise location information from hundreds of millions of smartphones around the world and shares it with authorities to help in criminal cases.
However, Google does not share identifiable information on all devices after receiving a warrant. Instead, authorities have to first narrow down their list of suspects using the location history data, only after which Google shares further information about a few selected users (suspects or witnesses).
Now top U.S. lawmakers from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Google raising concerns about the database and seeks a briefing on how it is used and shared by the company.
“The potential ramifications for consumer privacy are far-reaching and concerning. We would like to know the purposes for which Google maintains the Sensorvault database and the extent to which Google shares precise location information from this database with third parties,” the letter reads.
images from Hacker News
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