Feds Probe Pandora Privacy Issues

Say what you will about "old media," at least your FM radio doesn't tell anybody where you are – unlike Pandora and other Internet-based music and entertainment providers who may track your location and supply information about you to advertisers.

Pandora said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had received a subpoena related to a federal grand jury investigaiton of smartphone applications' information-sharing practices, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Pandora said it had been informed it was "not a specific target of the investigation," meaning that other companies were also on federal prosecutors' list.

The probe centers specifically on whether the app makers fully described to users the types of data that would be collected and why the information was necessary, reports said. Collection information without proper notice or advance authorization could be held to violate one or more federal computer fraud laws.

The probe is said to involve both Apple and Google applications that are widely available through the companies' "app stores" for use on smartphones and other mobile devices.