The US Congress has issued an open letter asking Google CEO Sundar Pichai to explain in detail why his company keeps a database of the precise location information of hundreds of millions of consumers.
Sensorvault, as it is referred to internally, is a database that Google maintains to improve its offerings (serve better ads, provide accurate location services, etc.), but also to help police in criminal investigations. The data arrives at Google in the form of latitude and longitude with a high degree of accuracy, and continuously tracks users’ whereabouts.
However, as the New York Times reported recently, the police have wrongly used this data to jail innocents. The letter to Google’s CEO is therefore well timed.
