Apple responds to lawmakers' questions about location data collection

Apple answered congressional questions about the ways it collects users' precise location information from its mobile devices and computers, highlighting users' ability to opt out of data collection, but acknowledging that it collects and stores "batched" user location data that is not directly associated with a particular identity or device.

Apple's answers came in a document released July 19 by Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), who sent the electronics maker a list of questions last month after the Los Angeles Times published a report pointing to the company's practice of collecting, storing and sharing the "precise," "real-time geographic location" of users' mobile devices.

Apple noted that user location information cannot be collected unless a user has the device's location-services turned on, and has allowed individual applications such as Google Maps or Yelp to use location data. For many users, these settings are set the first time they use a device and application, but not seen frequently afterward. Once a user has accepted those terms, the company can collect and store the data. It does so, it says, by collecting "batched" sets of location data from user devices once every 12 hours. Devices with GPS chips -- like all recent-model iPhones -- know their position based on satellite signals, and others can triangulate their location using data about nearby cellular towers and Wi-Fi access points.

Reps Markey and Barton thanked Apple for sharing basic information about their use of location data, but noted that industry practices in this area have been less than transparent.