New York City is considering a bill that would ban companies from selling cellphone location data.
Currently, cellphone providers and app developers can collect and share a user's location data. People often agree to this in the lengthy "terms of use" that many of us sign, but don't thoroughly read. Location information is useful to marketing companies and other businesses, and, according to The New York Times, it can bring in billions of dollars a year.
This New York City bill would ban the sale of any location data collected within the five boroughs. The penalty for illegally sharing data info would be $1,000 per violation, and up to $10,000 per person per day.
The bill does make exceptions to allow data location to be shared with law enforcement agencies, when someone calls 911 and when customers choose to do so.
