Windows Phone does transmit location information without user consent

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/windows-phone-does-transmit-location-information-without-user-consent/14970

by 0x12 • 15 years ago

66 14 15 years ago

palish3• 15 years ago

This is probably due to incompetence, not malice. Bugfix a'hoy?

They probably meant "It is our intention not to collect information..." rather than "Microsoft does not collect information..."

If you make a mistake which contradicts something you've said in a formal contract, is there any way to basically say "Whoops, my bad, yo. We're pushing out a bugfix ASAP"? Would that even 'matter'? I guess it depends entirely on the exact contract, so there's probably no way to answer that.

I mean, people make mistakes. It's life; it happens. I'm just wondering if the legal system reflects that fact at all, or whether it's a hardcore stonefaced slavedriver that laughs at how naive you are for thinking you get a second chance.

anedisi• 15 years ago

there is a lot of this type of "mistakes" if i would let my imagination to take over i could say they do it on purpose and say it is mistake only if they get caught.

palish3• 15 years ago

That's true, but very rare.

CurtHagenlocher• 15 years ago

I suspect that the relevant semantic distinction here is between "transmit" and "collect".

cgranade• 15 years ago

Where personally identifiable information is concerned, transmission implies collection, as there is no way to verify that the receiving party does not record. Any statement to the contrary is to take the recipient merely on faith.

Someone• 15 years ago

Not merely on faith; There also is the statement to the house of representatives. IANAL, but I would guess that could lead to some serious jail time, if it turned out that the data was collected.

ntoshev2• 15 years ago

This looks like requesting an approximate position assisting the gps to to get the precise position. I'd bet all agps devices do it in this way; before the confirmation dialog, because it gives the optimal user experience. If they waited for confirmation to download the agps data, you'd haveto wait more to grt your location. Even if you don't want to get your location now, it makes sense to cache them because you are likely to want it in the near future. These are the same data iPhone was found to cache and back up.

rufius• 15 years ago

You're certainly spot on in my opinion. Thinking about it, I think the key thing is that they're "caching" but not necessarily "using" the info. If they don't use it at all, then it is what it is but what they're doing is likely in the best interest of the user for a seemless experience.

SoftwareMaven• 15 years ago

I agree, but it all comes down to what they are sending. Sending "some anonymous device (assuming they cab truly keep things anonymous, a non-trivia, task!) is around here" is probably OK. Sending "device ae4f3297ffd is around here" is most likely not ok at all.

ntoshev2• 15 years ago

I agree, they are sending more info than they need to, in the same way Apple didn't need to store these data for so long or back them up on a computer. In both cases I don't think there is malice, but it's good people actually check what is going on and force vendors to take privacy seriously.

kurtsiegfried• 15 years ago

The actual source of the article is below. ZDNet didn't add much to the article other than ads.

http://www.withinwindows.com/2011/09/23/dissecting-case-0143...

Windows Phone does transmit location information without user consent

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