Senate Judiciary Committee approves Franken's location privacy bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of Sen. Al Franken's (D-MN) Location Privacy Protection Act.

The bill would require companies to get a customer's consent before collecting or sharing mobile location data. It would also ban mobile applications that secretly monitor the user's location — a feature that Sen Franken said allows for stalking and enables domestic violence. Sen Franken noted that many apps already ask for users' permission before tracking them, but he said his bill is necessary to ensure that the practice is mandatory. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) did not attend the markup, but registered dissenting votes. Sen Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the panel's ranking Republican, said he still has concerns with the bill, but he agreed to move it forward. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) also said they have some concerns with the language of the bill, but they said they would work with Sen Franken to improve the legislation. Sen Franken said he already worked on his bill for a year and a half, and added that he held extensive conversations with industry groups. But he said he would work with the other senators to address their concerns.