Rockefeller to probe mobile privacy

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a May hearing on consumer privacy on mobile phones, Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced Thursday. 

The announcement follows the discovery that iPhones track and store information about users' whereabouts, a discovery Apple says it will fix through a software update.

Rockefeller called this incident "just the latest in a string of concerns raised in the mobile marketplace." He said the mobile marketplace "collects and uses a wide range of personal information — often with inadequate or untimely disclosure."

He also raised concern that a lack of competition could be intensifying the problem.

"Concentration in the mobile platform market raises further concerns about whether or not competition will drive pro-consumer practices," he said.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary privacy subpanel, is also holding a hearing on mobile privacy, scheduled for May 10.