Windows Phone 7 collects user location data as well

Following Apple and Google, the software giant Microsoft has admitted that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) also collects user's location data. The device picks up the BSSID, the signal strength, the radio type, and if GPS is enabled it also logs direction and speed.

According to Microsoft, only publicly broadcasted data from WiFi access points was collected. They also said that the software does not collect emails, passwords or similar information from open networks. Users need to turn off all location-based services on the handset using a global setting provided for this purpose, in order to stop data collection in Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft has revealed why it collects the data, and what it does with it:

"To provide location services, Microsoft assembles and maintains a database that records the location of certain mobile cell towers and WiFi access points", says the software giant in a security blog posting. "These data points are used to calculate and provide an approximate location of the user's device by comparing the WiFi access points and cell towers that a user's device can detect to the location database, which contains correlations of known WiFi access points and cell towers to observed latitudes and longitudes".

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