section_path: Internet/Privacy and location-based services/Ethical controversies over location privacy
section_name: Ethical controversies over location privacy
paragraph_text: Ethical controversies over location privacy
  
  There have been scandals regarding location privacy. One instance was the scandal concerning AccuWeather, where it was revealed that AccuWeather was selling locational data. This consisted of a user's locational data, even if they opted out within Accuweather, which tracked users' location. Accuweather sold this data to Reveal Mobile, a company that monetizes data related to a user's location. Other international cases are similar to the Accuweather case. In 2017, a leaky API inside the McDelivery App exposed private data, which consisted of home addresses, of 2.2 million users.
  
  In the wake of these types of scandals, many large American technology companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook have been subjected to hearings and pressure under the U.S. legislative system. In 2011, US Senator Al Franken wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs, noting the ability of iPhones and iPads to record and store users' locations in unencrypted files. Apple claimed this was an unintentional software bug, but Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology directly challenged that portrayal, stating "I'm glad that they are fixing what they call bugs, but I take exception with their strong denial that they track users." In 2021, the U.S. state of Arizona found in a court case that Google misled its users and stored the location of users regardless of their location settings.