Illinois Attorney General Madigan requests meeting with Apple, Google

“Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan called for a meeting Monday with Apple Inc. and Google executives in the wake of reports that iPhones, iPads and Google Android devices are collecting and storing detailed information about users’ locations,” The St. Louis Business Journal reports.

“Madigan sent a letter to both technology giants in response to press reports that Apple and Google mobile devices store user location information that can be transmitted back to the companies,” The St. Louis Business Journal reports. “Madigan has asked the companies to detail what information the company is storing, for how long and what it is used for.”

Read more in the full article here.

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  1. I love it when politicians get involved in matters of technology. All it does is highlight their lack of understanding how the real world works. Makes you wonder what else they are poking around in in which they are vastly uninformed.

      1. Lisa who?
        Some tinpot politician “called for a meeting”. Go powder your nose dear, run along now, the titans of industry are too busy for your grab at free publicity.

    1. “what else they are poking around in in which they are vastly uninformed.”

      That would be medical care and oil production. All they know is how to vilify.

      1. That’s right, all politicians are evil, blah, blah, blah. And, of course, the medical and oil industries are private sector capitalist entities that have only the public’s best interests at heart.

        Come on, TT, nothing is that cut and dried. If you truly believe that, then you are less worthy of an informed debate than I had thought.

        1. Actually, both politicians and capitalists are evil.

          And I wonder how politicians could not not evil if in supposedly “Greatest Democracy of the World” one has to have $1 billion to be able to run for the presidency.

          Obviously this system forces absolutely everyone — not just “most” — to accept money from corporations. And these money are never given for free.

          So what happens is illusion of democracy at best. The slight shifts, mostly cosmetic, in attitudes between Democrats and Republicans are irrelevant to the essence of politics and economics.

          For example, Democrats are supposed to be “peaceful”, but both Clinton and Obama bombed a whole lot of counties, most of which unlawfully.

          Military industry needs to write off another thousands of older Tomahawk missiles so they would get huge multi-billion dollar orders for new quantities.

          Along the way, Pentagon also uses every other war as testing ground for both old and new weapons — with real lives as test subject.

          This tradition goes from nuclear bombing of Japan, use of chemical weapons in Vietnam, cassette-bombs in Yugoslavia, and so on.

      She also asked “what is a computer”, “how do I get me one of those internets”, “will this meeting get me free publicity”

  2. Wasn’t AG’s job to pursue the crime, and to protect people. But what is the crime of Apple here, or even a smell of crime? Nothing, Apple has done nothing wrong here. So why this Lisa doing it?

  3. Another Democrat jumps on the bandwagon. This ditz is the daughter of Michael Madigan, who has been Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives for most of the last quarter century. Corrupt Chicagoland. Blago and Obama territory.

    1. Right. There is a clear difference between the parties, see, because the billion$$ that Big Fossil Fuels and Warmongering co’s spend to buy GOP politicians isn’t “corruption,” that’s just GOP “supporting American business.”

    2. @First 2010, Then 2012
      Your partisan hate is getting old. Why don’t you go to a political blog where more people couldn’t care less about you simpleton opinions

        1. These people do not value their freedom…privacy being one of them. All they do is hate monger. “All politicians are bad”, “Privacy is not a right”, “I own AAPL stock…do not look at the man behind the curtain”.

    3. In this isolated case you have a point – more Democrats than Republicans appear to have prematurely jumped into this non-issue. But you may recall that Joe L. Barton, R-TX was part of the inquiry into this matter last year. The GOP is far from blameless when it comes to self-serving publicity seeking.

      You are so blindly partisan, however, that being occasionally correct is merely an accident, much like the old adage regarding a broken clock being right twice a day. It happens, but the clock is still broken. I would pity you if you weren’t so obnoxious.

  4. Why hasn’t Apple PR or Legal gotten ahead of this is a complete mystery. Letting all of these spurious articles and untruths spread is an example of an organization that is not capable of nimble responses that deflect this BS.
    Apple design and engineering= good, and the rest of the organization not so much. Why is it so hard to respond in a timely manner?

    1. You want them to shoot from the hip on something like this? Pretty sure lawyers and PR people have to be involved, particularly when you have multiple countries concerned and lawsuits filed. The Antennagate nontroversy had to be handled the same way.

      I’m still utterly mystified as to why all this hysteria is reserved almost solely for Apple, and why Google mostly gets a free pass. At least Ms. Madigan made sure to rope Google in on this one.

    2. Apple has refused to say how much information is sent to the company, how long it is kept, how it is used and why the information is stored in an unencrypted file. Even fanboys understand that the best company in the world couldnt have made such an error. C’mon, it’s AAPL! Sunday the WSJ reported that even if you opt out info is still sent to Apple. Apple : it’s not your buddy,it’s not your pal it’s a huge money making machine that does not care about anything but making money. Yes, it loves to swallow fanboys too. Make money buying and selling the stock and options. Enjoy the fantastic devices that they make. But make no mistake, they do not care about you or what you think. Grow up. Never be a fanboy. Quit making excuses for a company that will run over you and think nothing of it. Get out of your mom’s basement. Act like adults.

      1. Is that GM for the bankrupt car and truck manufacturer or are you just a big fan of genetic manipulation?

        Now a GM product might run you over, but some genetic manipulation will still not raise your IQ past 100.

        All you have to do is look at the data files to see what info is passed on. That is, if you have an Android phone or an iPhone.
        Google knows everything, who you are, what you do and who you do it to.

        Apple has a vague idea where you are but doesn’t know who you are. But that’s only if the file gets sent to Cupertino. There is no evidence that the file gets sent anywhere.

        Don’t you look in need of genetic manipulation.

      2. “Sunday the WSJ reported that even if you opt out info is still sent to Apple.”

        Actually the article says “There’s no evidence the information is transferred to Apple.”

        You get out of your mom’s basement and take off your tinfoil hat.

  5. The ignorance and attacking comments flying around about this is insane. I think the real issue here are the timestamps associated with each logged cellsite. I fail to see the importance of knowing *when* a cellsite or wifi hotspot is seen, unless that information is going to be analyzed in some way, either on the device or back at “headquarters”.

    This very website is tracking us… it knows when we left these comments and from what IP address (unless we’re smart enough to use proxy servers).

  6. @First 2010, Then 2012

    Can anybody play “disjointed stream of consciousness”, lets see:

    corrupt iran-contra Reagan coved up by CIA-connected GHW Bush, later followed by nepotistic GWB starting wars with CIA support and the help of reanimated Reagan/GHWB cronies.

    Not so hard, but why can’t we just stick to Mac issues instead of trying to make Obama responsible for the actions of every elected Dem?

    1. Corrupt Chicago thug politics. Obama’s way. Do you dispute? If so, you are a gullible fool, just another pawn.

      Unlike your knee-jerk meaninglessness, my inferences at least fall in the same general geographical area.

      1. Like I said. You may be in the right forest, but you miss it for the trees. Big Oil and Coal should pay guys like you for whitewashing the biggest corruption the world has ever seen, which is about 95% GOP corruption.

        1. I take that back. They do pay guys like you to bash Dems all over the Web, every day. The only question is whether you’re “smart” (inhuman) enough to actually be on the take– or just seriously misguided.

      2. Sure, I’ll dispute.
        I mean, you can’t even compose a coherent sentence; but give it a shot.
        You’ve implicitly stated that Obama practices “corrupt thug politics”. Prove it.

    2. I think the point is…nobody gives a shiitake what any Illinois politician says about matters of conscience due to its lack of said attribute…

        1. If you get dried shiitakes, then you have to soak them in warm water for about 30 minutes. Then remove the stem and slice thinly to add to your hot and sour soup for that nice smoky flavor.

          1. It’s tough call: the dried have that more complex flavour, but the fresh have better texture and earthier overtones. Which way to go? Conservatively dried? Or progressively fresh?

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