It came to light this week that the Palm Pre sends an array of user information back to Palm HQ on a daily basis. Specifically, Palm Pre users send the following information back to the mothership every 24 hours.
1) Installed Apps
2) Crash Logs
3) User Location (via GPS)
4) And finally, a list of which apps are being used and for how long
Obviously, having Big Brother being constantly aware of your whereabouts is a troubling idea, but Palm issued a statement on the matter earlier this week:
“Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.”
Fair enough, but can you imagine the backlash if big, bad, and evil Apple was found to be doing the same thing?
August 15th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
““Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off.”
Really? If no one knew that Palm was collecting this information until this week, how exactly, could users have ways to turn that off?
August 17th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Does Nintendo do this with the Wii? It keeps track of all your usage, but maybe it is ok because you know they collect it up front? Does the Pre send your name back to Palm?