Apple isn’t the only company interested in knowing exactly where you are at any given moment. A new leaked memo from the heart of Google reveals that not only is the company checking the location of your Android smartphone regularly, but that information is considered “extremely valuable” to the company.
The memo, leaked to the San Jose Mercury News, was written by Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at the company, to founder and now-CEO Larry Page, in the wake of Motorola deciding to use a competing location data service. In it, Page writes that he “cannot stress enough how important Google’s wifi location database is to our Android and mobile product strategy,” adding that Google “need[s] wifi data collection in order to maintain and improve our wifi location service.”
Using mobile devices to gather information about wifi networks became even more vital to the company when Google officially discontinued the process of wifi location via its Street View cars last year, following public and political outcry about accidental additional data collection in the process. Representatives from both Google and Apple are expected to testify before politicians about location tracking later this month.
More on TIME.com:
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Apple: We’re Not Tracking Anyone, and We Never Will
Class Action Suit Filed Against Apple over Location Tracking