It’s interesting that Google and iPhone were asked to speak in front of Congress this week to discuss concerns over whether their respective iPhone and Android Devices were storing user’s “private location” information. Each device maker read their “pre-canned” responses as each member of Congress asked “pre-canned” questions; more than likely prepared by their staff. Have any of these people actually used a smartphone? Or are they worried that they, too, would lose their privacy or the American people would actually know where THEY were? Who actually started this?

It’s seems to me that no one in Congress has actually used an Android or iPhone application; as if they had they might have seen in BIG BOLD LETTERS: “Warning! We are sharing your location! DO YOU ACCEPT?” The fact that most mobile operating systems actually require that any sharing of your location with either a 3rd Party application or the device itself get your permission, must have went way over the government’s head. I mean, doesn’t even Barack have a SUPER-smartphone? Couldn’t he had answered these questions?

I think the real crux of the issue regarding privacy goes way beyond location collection, it’s really about ALL of the data and what happens to it when it’s not being used anymore. Does it sit on an Apple database in the (iCloud) or does Google keep all of its mobile user’s data in a Russian server outside the gulag? And if they do is it secure? Are they selling this information to a third party?

We all know that a mobile device stores information about us, where we’ve been and who we’ve called, I mean it doesn’t happen magically. My biggest question is, what happens to your data when these huge giants aren’t using it anymore.