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Apple and Google must tell users how much they are spying on them, according to US lawmakers.
The Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to the leaders of both companies asking them to clarify whether iPhones and Android devices collect information about their users and how that data is used.
The letters suggest that devices could track their users, including tracking their location and listening to what they're doing through their microphone.
He asks both companies to clarify their data policies, including whether this information is tracked and to whom it can be forwarded.
The letters refer to suggestions that, despite claims by technology companies that devices listen only when they hear their pbadword, they collect more audio and that unknown companies may have access to records of their personal lives.
"Recent reports have also suggested that smartphone devices can, and in some cases, collect" un-triggered "audio data from user conversations near a smartphone in order to hear a phrase "trigger", like "OK" Google "or" hey Siri ", they write in letters to Apple executives and Google.
"It has also been suggested that third-party applications have access to this" non-triggered "data and use it without disclosing it to users."
A letter sent to Google also states that Google allows third-party companies to access users' Gmail account information.
"In June 2017, Google announced changes to Gmail that would prevent the badysis of a user's e-mail content to personalize the advertisements in order to" preserve privacy and confidentiality. " security ".
"Last week, reports showed that despite this change in policy, Google still allowed third parties to access user email content, including message text, email messages electronic signatures and receipts.
"In the context of free services offered by third parties, these practices raise questions about how representations made by a platform are made in practice."
In addition to referring to specific reports, letters to both Apple's Chief Tim Cook and Alphabet's CEO, Larry Page, include a range of specific issues.
They look at technology used by businesses to track user information, as well as ask general questions about business policies about how they can use the information they have collected.
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