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2 Eur. Data Prot. L. Rev. 312 (2016)
EU Law Perspectives on Location Data Privacy in Smartphones and Informed Consent for Transparency

handle is hein.journals/edpl2 and id is 338 raw text is: 312 1 EU Law Perspectives on Location Data Privacy in Smartphones EU Law Perspectives on Location Data Privacy in Smartphones and Informed Consent for Transparency Shakila-Bu-Pasha, Anette Alen-Savikko, Jenna Meikinen, Robert Guinness and Peiivi Korpisaari* Protection of privacy is currently a debated topic with regard to collecting and processing of location data via smartphones. This article seeks to discover whether meaningful protec- tion of privacy is fostered by default location settings and the practice of seeking users' per- mission by requiring approval of general terms and conditions, or if these instead cause users to unknowingly share location data. The article also asks whether such practices com- ply with human rights law and European Union (EU) data protection law. Moreover, the ar- ticle discusses whether it is feasible to adopt transparent, explicit and specific steps to se- cure user privacy at all levels of smartphone usage, and argues that users should enjoy some control over personal data associated with smartphone usage, including location, and that this control should be executed under a legal arrangement which also secures users' priva- cy and enables app developers' or operating system providers' lawful purposes with regard to processing location data. I. Introduction 1. Topic Overview Privacy is a critical concern in connection with smart phone applications (apps) and use of mobile devices in general around the world. Location privacy, in par ticular, is under scrutiny since other private informa tion can be derived from location related informa tion. Location data privacy refers to the right not to be subjected to unauthorised collection, retention, use or distribution as well as processing of individ Shakila-Bu-Pasha, Doctoral Student, Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki; Anette Alen-Savikko, Post-doctoral Researcher in Copy- right Law, University of Helsinki; Jenna M1kinen, Doctoral Re- searcher, Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki; Robert Guinness, Senior Research Scientist, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, National Land Survey of Finland; Piivi Korpisaari, Professor in Communication Law, University of Helsinki. For correspondence: <shakila.bu-pasha@helsinki.fi>. The work is supported by the MyGeoTrust Project running under Department of Navigation and Positioning, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, National Land Survey of Finland. 1 Robert P Minch, 'Privacy Issues in Location-Aware Mobile Devices' (Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on Sys- ual or organisational location data.2 The concept of location data privacy does not refer to hiding infor mation rather it safeguards one's present or past location information from use for commercial or oth er purposes without one's knowledge.3 Many smartphone and other mobile device users become reluctant to install mobile apps or uninstall them after realizing that their personal data have been revealed to others due to the installation of cer tain apps.4 Furthermore, in many cases the mobile operating system (OS) itself collects data which may be considered personal data, and it may be impossi tem Sciences 2004), 2 <https//www.computer.org/csdl/proceed- ings/hicss/2004/2056/05/205650127b.pdf> accessed 8 June 2016. 2 Location Forum, Location Data Privacy Guidelines, Assessments and Recommendations (Version 2, 1 May 2013), 7. 3 Location Forum, The Executive Guide to Location Data Privacy (The Elephant in the Conference Room, Version 1.0); Alastair R Beresford and Frank Stajano, 'Location privacy in pervasive computing' (IEEE CS and IEEE Communications Society, 2003), 46 <https://www.cs.cmu.edu/ 15-821 /CDROM!PAPERS/beres- ford2003.pdf> accessed 8 June 2016. 4 Jan Lauren Boyles et al, 'Privacy and Data Management on Mobile Devices' (Pew Research Center, 5 September 2012) <http://www.pewinternet.org/201 2/09/05/privacy-and-data-man- agement-on-mobile-devices/> accessed 8 June 2016. EDPL 312016

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