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Following the location question-and-answer document Apple published earlier today, CEO Steve Jobs has gone on the record about the company's plans to answer inquiries made by government officials, including the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"I think Apple will be testifying," Jobs said in an interview with All Things Digital. "They have asked us to come and we will honor their request of course."
Immediately following the discovery of the iOS database file containing timestamped nearby cell tower, Wi-Fi and GPS information last week, Apple was peppered with questions by prominent lawmakers over the company's intentions. Apple responded to the matter publicly for the first time in its Q&A document this morning, saying that the company was in no way tracking users, and that the location file was just a small part of a secured, crowd-sourced database Apple maintains to speed up location finding on iOS devices.
In the interview, Jobs said such technology required education on the part of consumers, something that could be improved. "As new technology comes into the society there is a period of adjustment and education," Jobs told the outlet. "We haven't-as an industry-done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the last week."
Among those who have queried Apple on the purpose of the location database file are Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) as well as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Letters were also sent to Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Google, Research in Motion and Hewlett-Packard by House lawmakers earlier this week, who wanted to know what kind of information was being collected, for what purposes, and if there was a way to disable it. Many of those questions have been answered by the company, though several remain.
In the interview, Jobs declined to comment on the activities of what competitors were up to, saying only that "some of them don't do what we do."
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"I think Apple will be testifying," Jobs said in an interview with All Things Digital. "They have asked us to come and we will honor their request of course."
Immediately following the discovery of the iOS database file containing timestamped nearby cell tower, Wi-Fi and GPS information last week, Apple was peppered with questions by prominent lawmakers over the company's intentions. Apple responded to the matter publicly for the first time in its Q&A document this morning, saying that the company was in no way tracking users, and that the location file was just a small part of a secured, crowd-sourced database Apple maintains to speed up location finding on iOS devices.
In the interview, Jobs said such technology required education on the part of consumers, something that could be improved. "As new technology comes into the society there is a period of adjustment and education," Jobs told the outlet. "We haven't-as an industry-done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the last week."
Among those who have queried Apple on the purpose of the location database file are Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) as well as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Letters were also sent to Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Google, Research in Motion and Hewlett-Packard by House lawmakers earlier this week, who wanted to know what kind of information was being collected, for what purposes, and if there was a way to disable it. Many of those questions have been answered by the company, though several remain.
In the interview, Jobs declined to comment on the activities of what competitors were up to, saying only that "some of them don't do what we do."
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