Governments should allow for tech solutions before legislating, says Google exec

Eric Schmidt, who was speaking at the eG8 forum in Paris, said that technological solutions would be available quicker than new laws, technology news website ZDNet reported.

Before we decide how we regulate, let's ask, 'Is there a technological solution that can scale and move quickly?' Because we'll get around to it before governments [can legislate]," Schmidt said according to ZDNet's report.

Google may face just such a change in the laws that apply to it when the European Commission amends the data protection regime. The Data Protection Directive, established in 1995, forces companies to protect customers' personal data. The Commission has said that it will update the Directive later this year to reflect changes in technology.

European data protection watchdogs the Article 29 Working Party recently recommended that the Commission class geolocation data, information that tracks where people have been, as personal data.

The Working Party adopted an opinion that said that it was possible to use the data from mobile and other devices to build a regular pattern of where the device had been which in turn could identify people.

"It is a fact that the location of a particular device can be calculated in a very precise way ... Such a location can point to a house or an employer. Especially with repeated observations, it is possible to identify the owner of the device," the Working Party said in its recently adopted opinion.

The Working Party said companies should have to gain users' consent to use geolocation data.

Google is currently fighting a lawsuit in the US over how it records geolocation data on its Android operating system on mobile phones.

"All Android Operating System phones log, record and store users' locations based on latitude and longitude alongside a timestamp and unique device ID attached to each specific phone," the lawsuit papers said, according to a report on the IBTimes business website.

"Cellular phones using Google's Android Operating System obtain tracking information every few seconds and download the user location data and unique device ID attached to each specific phone to Google computers on a regular basis several times every hour. The data is unencrypted while being transmitted and while on the mobile devices," the lawsuit says according to the website.

"Users of cellular phones using Google's Android Operating System ... were unaware of Google's extensive tracking of their locations and did not knowingly consent to such tracking," the lawsuit says according to the website.

Two women from Michigan who brought the case against Google say the company's terms and conditions do not allow it to use geolocation data without their consent.

On Google's website users can manage geolocation data through a web browser. But according to a report on ZDNet the information is not available as an application on mobile devices that support Android, and most users are not aware of it.

"To Google’s credit it should be noted that GPS [(global positioning system)] location history for Latitude is disabled by default, so that it only uses location for that specific service on the fly, but the Dashboard for Latitude is considered to be 'beta' by the company," the report on ZDNet says.

Last week Google had to update its security measures on smartphones after researchers found more than 99% of the devices leaked information that could lead to users' personal data being stolen.

Hackers could gain access to phone users' log-in details, to Google Calendar, Google Contacts and possibly other services by intercepting a phone's attempts to connect to Wi-Fi networks, the researchers had claimed. Google said it was rolling out a global solution to the problem.