Developer Joey Hess was playing with webOS when he noticed that it was sending some kind of info to Palm on a daily basis. Joey tore apart the data the Pre was transmitting, and discover that Palm is playing the role of Big Brother with us Pre owners.

This might come as a surprise for some, not so much for others. The truth is, in this 21st century world nobody has much privacy anymore. That been said, remember when Roger McNamee said “The Pre will sync your calendar and pull data for your events including maps and Wikipedia information on the person or company you are meeting with. Using GPS the Pre can tell if you are running late for an appointment and will ask you if you would like it to send out an email or place a call to let them know if you are running late.” Well, how did you think Palm was going to accomplish that?

Okay now, it seems like Palm pulls at least this much information daily from your Pre smartphone:

* Your location
* Which apps you have used and for how long
* Your app crash log
* Which apps you have ever installed

I can see where some of that info might help Palm have a better product for us. But, I can also see where a lot of you would like to tell Palm to keep their nose out of your business. I guess is like nuclear power; intended for good, but some use it to make weapons. Hess does detail a relatively easy way to disable the transfer of personal data back to Palm’s servers but it requires Linux access, and may even disable routine functions of WebOS, so follow up at your own risk.

Palm has since issued a statement to Matt Hickey at cnet and to Eric Zeman at PhoneScoop on the matter:

Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.

I know most of us don’t go through EULAs and privacy policies. But for your reading pleasure here are the links to the Terms and Conditions for Palm webOS Services and Palm Privacy Policy.

[Via SlashGear]