Congress has questions for Google’s ‘Sensorvault’

Top members on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling for answers from Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the tech giant’s “Sensorvault,” which holds the precise location information of hundreds of millions of consumers.

In a bipartisan letter sent to Pichai on Tuesday signed by Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the lawmakers expressed concerns over consumer privacy, citing a report by The New York Times that the database contains the information of almost every Android user.

{mosads}Such information has been used in the past by police for criminal cases.

Users of the devices can essentially have their “whole pattern of life” tracked, since the data is collected even when apps aren’t being used and calls aren’t taking place, the lawmakers noted in their letter.

“The potential ramifications for consumer privacy are far reaching and concerning when examining the purposes for the Sensorvault database and how precise location information could be shared with third parties,” they wrote. “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 lawmakers asking why Google stores the information, whether there are additional databases, who has access to the information, how accurate the information is, whether users can limit the company’s access to their information, what its retention policy is and whether it sells or shares the information with third parties.

The lawmakers requested to be briefed by the company by May 10 and that Google respond to written questions by May 7.

The panel’s ranking member, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), also signed on to the letter, as did Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).