geotracking. justin brookman brought up the fact about why it can be good to retain some of that data, why people might want to do that. so, again, it goes back to the question, how carefully can you craft legislation, how can you not, basically, have too broad a brush stroke that creates a bunch of unintended consequences? a lot of great suggestions yesterday, a lot of things that make you have to pause and think and consider, really, the consequences of all of the legislation. >> host: do you think it should be, should move on its own, or should it be part of a broader private baseline? i know that in the senate there's been a bill introduced, and there's been talk of a baseline privacy bill in the house. >> guest: well, i'd like to see them move separately. i think a lot of the issues are different, yet they sound similar. quite truthfully, they can get complicated and difficult to talk about. the data breach and the data security that we're talking mostly about with sony is a little bit differ

geotracking gives everyone a yuck factor. you can understand the physical harm when you think of tracking. so many of the things we do and the convenience is we have today are because of geotracking. when my daughter got her first car, i cannot imagine not having a device were you could just push go home. >> our guest is representative mary bono mack. she is the chairwoman of the energy and commerce subcommittee on commerce, many veteran, and trade. we are talking about the data security breach hearing that was held this week in her subcommittee. >> getting back to the tracking issue, do you have overall concerns about internet tracking as you go from place to place on the web in order to target ads? do you think that is something that should be regulated? the have any thoughts on proposals for do not track? should that be left to the private sector to innovate on? >> that is a great question. i am looking at it very closely and trying to separate good practices from bad and protect the consumer to make sure there online expe

. >> host: congresswoman you brought up geotracking especially when it comes to apple. is there a big rather quality and private companies having that kind of information about people? >> guest: well, they're sure can be and that is a great question. to me it gets back to what is the consumer aware that is happening to them and do they have the right to opt in and opt out and again for the consumer to understand the implications for themselves. geotracking of course gives everybody kind of a yuck factor like you think of a guy trucking around in a trenchcoat and there is a little bit of a yuck factor and you can understand the harm, the physical harm when you think of geotracking. yet, some of the things we do and the conveniences we have today are because of geotracking. we love our gps. when my daughter got her first car i couldn't imagine she would have a gps device where i could push go home and she would find her way home. a lot of those conveniences too so again to carefully consider the consumers empowered with the knowledge of exactly what is happening, how they

. >> did anyone defend the practice of geptracking, and can you -- geotracking, and can you turn them off? >> you have to give consent to turn on. they both said that you could turn off relatively easily. they could track your movements for some purpose. they did talk, people want these applications. they are not being forced to download these applications. they are paying for them. is dps ort applications for coupons and things like that -- is a popular applications. >> google was rep -- was represented by allen davis. >> here is how it works. when i first came out of my -- when i first took my phone out of the box, one of the first questions it asked me was whether or not to share information data sharegoogle.-- share information data with google. if the user does not turn in on, the fund will not send any information data back to google. if they do often, it is anonymous and not traceable to a specific user or the vice and users can usually -- or device and users can turn it off. they will be notified it is assessing location information. the user has the opportunity to cancel inst

. >> host: well, did anyone defend the practice of geotracking on the cell phones, and can you turn them off? >> guest: well, there's a lot of discussion of turning them off and app l and google said, first of all, you have to give your consent to turn on, but, yes, they both said you can turn it off relatively easily, that tracking capability. they don't like the word tracking because it's like they track your movements for purpose. they did talk as did jonathan zuck about people want these applications. they are not forced to download the applications, but they are paying for them. whether it's gps or applications allowing people to know where they kid is or applications for coupons for stores, they are popular applications. >> host: google was remitted by -- remitted by alan davidson. >> here's how it works. when i first took my android phone out of the box, one the first screens i saw asked me in plain language to affirmatively choose whether or not to share location information with google. a screen shot is include the in the testimony and on the board over here. if the user doesn't

let me ask you about the geotracking capability. is there a purpose for that? is there a legitimate business reason why geotracking might be available in some apps? >> if you're using a map function, geolocation tracking will enhance functionality. that doesn't explain why other apps that do not need geolocation data for functionality are nonetheless pulling down geolocation data and that's part of the problem. you know, you're given a prompt on some phones, do you want to share your geolocation data? if you say no, you can't use the app. that gets back to senator kerry's point. you want to -- functionality, but you also want to know who else may be getting access to that data. is that access just being used to enhance the functionality or is it then being sent to, you know, an lytics companies and ad networks and advertisers? that information is currently not available to consumers. >> my experience has been when i talk to people about this they have no clue that the data is being transmitted or shared with anyone. they have no idea. do you have any statistics

is there a particular reason why geotracking would be available in some apps? >> well, in some apps, if you're using a map fungs, geolocation enhances functionality. that doesn't explain why other apps that do not need geolocation data for functionality are nonetheless pulling down data, and that's part of the problem. you have a prompt on some phones on if you want to share your data, and you say no, then you can't use the app. that's back to senator kerry's point. you want functionality, but you want to know who gets access to the data. is that access used to enhance the functionality, or is it sent to add networks and -- ad networks and advertisers and so forth. that information is not available to consumers. >> in my experience has been when i talk to people about this, they have no clue that this data is being transmitted or shared with anyone. they have no idea. do you have any statistics on what people know now? i mean, stl any way to -- is there any way to know contactually what people understand -- people understand now? >> most people don't know, and