Congressional hearings regarding impending privacy legislation typically have focused on behavioral ad targeting, but location-based mobile targeting could be regulated, too. Two congressional subcommittees met this morning to discuss location-based technologies and their impact on consumer privacy and safety.

The relatively brief joint hearing served as a preliminary discussion about location-based data and its usage for targeting information and advertising to users of mobile devices. While nothing concrete emerged from the discussion, the potential is clear: impending comprehensive privacy legislation could regulate commercial use of location-based mobile data.