Lawmakers press Apple and Google to explain how they track and listen to users

Top Republican lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters Monday asking Apple and Google for more information on how extensively their smartphones track people's locations and record snippets of their conversations. The questions from lawmakers come amid a broader scrutiny from Capitol Hill into how the underlying, everyday practices of technology companies may infringe on Americans' privacy. Congressional hearings with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed several lawmakers were troubled by the amount of data that the social network collects on a regular basis. In the letters to Google and Apple, lawmakers said the committee is "reviewing the business practices that may impact the privacy expectations of Americans." The letters ask Larry Page -- the chief executive of Google's parent company Alphabet -- and Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, for more specific information on how their phones collect location information at times when many people may not expect.