And the trade is entirely legal in the U.S. ## What kinds of location data sales do Apple and Google allow for apps in their stores?
Apple and Google both have policies for companies selling location data.
But its not clear if the tech giants enforce those policiesor even how they would do so.
Only two companies, of about a dozen, were mentioned in the apps privacy policy.
That all gives the impression of in line with the Apple store policy.
The company also requires disclosure, telling developers that they must be transparent in how you handle user data.
Google didnt answer why Life360 was able to sell location data when we reached out for comment in November.
In January, Google simply restated the companys policy when we followed up asking about X-Modes direct server transfers.
How can data brokers get around Apples and Googles policies?
Looking at SDKs is one way to try and protect peoples privacy against data brokers.
The former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they both still work in the data industry.
X-Mode is not the only broker using this method.
What could Apple and Google do to clamp down on location data sales?
Thats pretty much the extent to what anyone can detect using technology.
The rest comes down to a policy issue.
But a policy like that would also rely heavily on the honor system.
If they do lie in those responses, theres no one who can really audit them, Egelman said.
Theres not much that Apple or Google can do.
This article wasoriginally published on The Markupand was republished under theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeslicense.
