The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is holding a public forum on privacy concerns about cell phones and their ability to track the location of users.

The forum is being held between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT at the FCC Headquarters, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington DC 20554.

Audio/video coverage of the meeting will be broadcast live with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live.  The FCC’s webcast is free to the public.  Those who watch the live video stream of the event may email event-related questions to livequestions@fcc.gov.  Depending on the volume of questions and time constraints, the panel moderators will work to respond to as many questions as possible during the workshop.

Those hearings came about due to an investigation by security researchers and the Wall Street Journal that found Google’s Android devices; Apple’s iPhones and other similar devices track customers’ locations without their knowledge.  At the hearing, senators called on Congress to pass new laws to protect smartphone users from having their locations tracked without their consent.

In bringing awareness to this issue, the federal government is making a statement about the need to preserve some level of privacy in the digital age. Concern over security and privacy is growing as the Internet and mobile devices play larger and larger roles in our work and play.