Google's Washington, DC office (C.E. Kent/flickr)
Google has an ability to track your every move, especially if you’re using a phone with Google functionality inside. Should the FTC investigate?
Democrats Ed Markey (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) are pressing the FTC to look into it. Google has many means of tracking your movements. GPS is only one of them.
It’s not just theoretical, either. Google sells geotargeting information as part of its core businesses, advertising:
You can choose locations such as entire countries, areas within a country like cities or territories, and even a radius around a location, or your Google My Business locations, for your ads to show. AdWords may also suggest related locations that you can choose to target based on your current settings.
The letter by Markey and Blumenthal is exactly right. They say that “Most consumers do not understand the level, granularity, and reach of Google’s data collection,” which is true. Google’s made it their mission to learn everything they can about you by any means necessary.
Should they even be allowed to do that surreptitiously?
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