Germany tells Apple it must “immediately disclose” what location data it is collecting

The German government is apparently taking a hard line against Apple’s recent announcement that they are collecting location data from GPS-enabled devices.

According to Der Spiegel, the German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has told Apple Inc. that they must “immediately disclose” exactly what location data they are collecting and/or storing. (We are assuming that she has the full force of law and the government behind her, although that was not exactly spelled out in the article.)

The Justise Minister is quoted as saying, “users of the iPhone and other GPS-enabled devices [must] be clear [about] what information will be collected about them,” and called for Apple’s “data protection officials” to offer insights into what is being collected.

The minister is also quoted as saying that she considers it “unthinkable” that Apple would be collecting and storing identifiable data of their users. Der Spiegel says that it is unsure whether or not Apple’s data collection is illegal under German law. They conclude with, “German data protection law requires, for example, that consumers must be educated” on what is being collected, and not simply agreeing to install a program, and that Apple TOS does not clearly spell out what it is collecting regarding location.

(Note: Translation was done using Google Translate, so if we are inaccurate in any way, please let us know.)

h/t PadGadget, whose translation is similar to ours.