14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond-based software giant Microsoft was hit last week with yet another lawsuit, this time coming from a series of Windows Phone 7 users who claim that the company's mobile platform is tracking and transmitting their location. The suit claims that the camera application on Windows Phone is uploading device IDs and location data even at times when users opt out of this.
However, Microsoft already denied these allegations, and even said that the platform and the handsets it runs on were designed not to illegally track users' locations.
In a recent statement to IBTimes, the Redmond-based company explained that any data that devices send to Microsoft cannot be related to a specific handset, which means that users' privacy is not at risk.
“Because we do not store unique identifiers with any data transmitted to our location service database by the Windows Phone camera or any other application, the data captured and stored on our location database cannot be correlated to a specific device or user,” the company notes.
“Any transmission of location data by the Windows Phone camera would not enable Microsoft to identify an individual or ‘track’ his or her movements.”
Even so, the company plans on investigating the claim, so as to make sure that it is not a bug of some sorts, and that users can be sure that they privacy is not at risk.
“Microsoft is investigating the claims raised in the complaint. We take consumer privacy issues very seriously,” Microsoft's spokesperson stated.
“Our objective was — and remains — to provide consumers with control over whether and how data used to determine the location of their devices are used, and we designed the Windows Phone operating system with this in mind.”
Not too long ago, Microsoft said that they were working on ways to eliminate any forms of location tracking from their Windows Phone platform, and that the NoDo update that started to arrive on devices about half a year ago was the software meant to do so.