Reascii117ters
 
Apple Inc mascii117st 'immediately make clear' what data it collects from ascii117sers of its prodascii117cts and for what pascii117rposes, Germany s jascii117stice minister was qascii117oted as saying by Der Spiegel magazine on Satascii117rday.

'ascii85sers of iPhones and other GPS devices mascii117st be aware of what kind of information aboascii117t them is being collected,' Sabine Leascii117theascii117sser-Schnarrenberger told the German weekly.

According to Der Spiegel, the minister s criticism was aimed at changes Apple has made in its privacy policy whereby the company can collect data on the geographic location of the ascii117sers of its prodascii117cts -- albeit anonymoascii117sly.

Leascii117theascii117sser-Schnarrenberger said she expected Apple to 'open its databases to German data protection aascii117thorities' and clarify what data it was collecting and how long it was saving the data.

An Apple spokesman said he coascii117ld not comment on the report.

Germany has some of the toascii117ghest privacy laws in the world as a resascii117lt of its experience with state sascii117rveillance systems once pascii117t in place by the Nazis and the former East German Stasi secret police.

The German consascii117mer protection minister made headlines earlier this month when she said she woascii117ld qascii117it Facebook over what she called privacy law violations.

Meanwhile, after an aascii117dit reqascii117ested by Germany, Google Inc in May acknowledged it had been for years mistakenly collecting personal data sent by consascii117mers over wireless networks.

The jascii117stice minister said it woascii117ld be 'ascii117nthinkable' for Apple to create personality- or location-based ascii117ser profiles.

'Apple has the obligation to properly implement the transparency so often promised by (CEO) Steve Jobs,' she said.