For my latest TIME.com column, I got to spend time with Audi’s new A7. It has a supercharged V6 engine, an eight-speed Tiptronic transmission, and all-wheel drive. That’s great, but what got me excited was the Google Earth-based navigation, dual SD slots, handwriting recognition, and onboard Wi-Fi hotspot…

The bill was simultaneously introduced in both the House and Senate today.

It aims to codify how companies may use and share data, as well as giving consumers more power in consenting to such tracking. In addition, the legislation provides guidelines on how government and law enforcement may use the location data on wireless phones.

While Wyden and Chaffetz said that it is a good thing that such technology exists, they also said there is a lack of regulation surrounding how this data can be shared or used. “It is the job of Congress to protect and defend the United States Constitution and the personal liberties provided to American citizens under the Fourth Amendment,” Chaffetz said.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches without a warrant, and Wyden and Chaffetz would like to extend these protections to mobile location data. It would also regulate how such data could be admissible as evidence in court.

Wyden and Chaffetz’s efforts are likely to be welcomed by privacy advocates who have sounded the alarm that such data could be used by the government to spy on its citizens. Obviously, there would be extenuating circumstances where no warrant would be required, but for the most part law enforcement or the government would be prohibited from snooping without cause.

A similar bill has also been introduced by Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). That legislation, called the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011, would compel companies to inform when they collect location data, and give consumers the right to opt out if they desire.

Either way, it’s good to see such efforts beginning in Capitol Hill. Right now, the U.S .has no protections for its citizens regarding our mobile location data. It’s time we did.

The DOJ’s reasoning for it is to be able to track the whereabouts of criminals. Obviously, whether law enforcement wants to do this for sanguine reasons or not, it’s likely to ruffle the feathers of privacy advocates — and probably some in Congress.

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken is one of them, and was one of the first to publicly take Apple to task over the issue late last month. In fact, Tuesday’s hearing was Franken’s idea as he chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

Will this fly? Probably not. Franken again at the hearing called for regulation on how data is collected as well as disclosure to consumers on how they’re being tracked. There’s little doubt that Franken wouldn’t support efforts by the DOJ or any other government agency for that matter to expand or legalize this type of tracking.

Could there be valid reasons for doing this? Oh, I’m sure of that. But in the end, I don’t see how consumers could get any true promise that their every move isn’t being tracked by Big Brother. These efforts should be approved on a case-by-base basis, not given a blanket approval through legislation.

That’s just asking for trouble in my eyes.

Apple says that it’ll release an update in the next few weeks that collects less data and none at all if location services are turned off, and doesn’t back it up to iTunes. And in the next major iOS revision, it’ll encrypt the data on the device.

Was reaction to all this overblown? Yes, since some of it suggested that Apple had access to data it could use to track individual consumers, a scenario that the evidence didn’t support. But it’s important that we know what our phones know about us. The researchers who wrote about this did Apple customers a favor–and they seem to have done Apple a favor, too, by finding bugs in iOS.

TeleNav, my favorite iPhone navigation app, is headed to Verizon. And, unlike its AT&T brethren, it’s coming in at a reasonable price point. Assuming I make the jump in the next week or so, this will be one of my first purchases. The AT&T Navigator branded TeleNav app currently runs $10/month or $70/year, whereas an annual subscription to the new app on Verizon will run only $22. Guess that’s what happens when you take out the carrier middle man. As you might expect, this dual platform approach has raised some questions regarding carrier control and the possibility of platform “fragmentation” – which TechCrunch counters as BS. But, any way you slice it, Verizon iPhone owners will have a compelling navigation experience available to them shortly. Yet for those looking for an inexpensive or free turn-by-turn GPS app, I continue to recommend MapQuest.

(This post republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

The Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom is a hybrid gadget that  combines both GPS technology and an accelerometer, located in the Nike+ shoe sensor. Runners can upload their data to the well-regarded Nikeplus.com website, where they can track their favorite routes, set goals, receive coaching, and challenge their friends.

Key features include the GPS tracking with the shoe sensor –great for runners off trail. The tap interface activates the backlight to mark laps during a run. And the watch has a USB connector molded into the watch strap, so you can plug it directly into a computer, no cable required.  At Last Gadget Standing we’ll find out if it tells time, too.

The SportWatch GPS should hit stores in April; the price hasn’t been announced yet.

Last Gadget Standing Nominees: DeLorme Earthmate PN-60W and Earthmate PN-60

Price: $549.95 (PN-60W); $399.95 (PN-60)

The Delorme PN-60W is the first handheld GPS with Type & Send outbound text satellite messaging, enabling users to stay connected with friends, family, and emergency services, from locations around the world. They can pinpoint their position on DeLorme’s included maps of North America. If their adventures take them beyond cell phone range, they can still send their text messages to recipients’ cell phones and email addresses, and to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Fire Eagle, SpotAdventures.com, and Geocaching.com. In addition, family and friends can track a user’s progress via Google’s free online maps.

DeLorme’s Earthmate PN-60 isn’t enabled for satellite communication, it does (like the PN-60w) offer a wealth of next-generation GPS features. They include GPX file support for superior flexibility in managing and saving waypoint, geocache, and track files; an elevation profile tool that pinpoints user location; new power management and display options that  extend battery life; and 3.5GB of onboard memory, ample enough to store maps and aerial imagery for countless outdoor adventures.

Both PN-60 models offer an icon-based interface for easily moving around the devices’ map, function and activity screens. All PN-Series receivers are ruggedized, waterproof (IPX-7), WAAS-enabled, and equipped with a high-sensitivity 32-channel GPS chipset, and dual-core processor. They come with new DeLorme Topo North America 9.0 GPS maps and PC software.

So all of today’s news involved stuff that applies to multiple existing phone platforms, and most of it was totally platform-agnostic. A quick recap after the jump.

* Both the iPhone and Android Facebook apps are getting updates focused on support for Groups and Places–and the Android app, which has lagged the iPhone one, will come closer to full parity;

* A new single-sign on feature will let any mobile app permit Facebook users to log in with one click, no password required–similar to what Facebook Connect already does, but meant to make it even simpler. Groupon, Flixter, Yelp, Booyah, and others are already supporting this;

* The API for Facebook’s Foursquare-like Places feature will let third-party services write to it, read it, and search it, allowing location-based services such as Loopt to integrate tightly with Places;

* A new Deals feature will let local merchants offer bargains or other offers to Facebook users who are in their vicinity and who check out the Nearby option in Facebook.

All of this looks nifty, as long as the prospect of creeping Facebookization of the Web doesn’t bother you too much. I do think that the company didn’t answer every reasonable question about privacy this morning: My friend Larry Magid of CBS News asked what it’s doing to prevent third-party sites from intentionally or unintentionally misusing the location data they get about Facebook members, and Zuckerberg and others said that everything’s opt-in and the original Places privacy policies remain unchanged. Which didn’t fully address Larry’s query. And as usual with new Facebook features, it’s a good idea to see how members react; neither Facebook nor pundits have a perfect track record at anticipating how real people will respond to issues involving the use of their personal information.

Overall, though, this could be at least as big a deal as Facebook’s rolling out of a universal Like button was a few months ago. Me, I’m in favor of Facebook doing this stuff until someone else comes along and does a better job at it.

Only 10 devices within these models have so far been confirmed to have the actual problem, however Garmin has decided to recall all possibly affected devices as a safety precaution. The exact cause of the overheating issue — which leads to the possibility of the device catching fire — is not known.

The issue affects the following models:

• Garmin 200W
• Garmin 250W and 260W
• Garmin 7xxW series (the xx is a two digit number)

Garmin has set up a special website to see if your nuvi device is affected, and its estimated about 765,000 units were sold that potentially could be part of the recall.

Users who attempt the repair on their own would void their warranty. The battery, as well as a spacer to prevent any future overheating issues would be installed by Garmin for those devices returned through recall. It appears the original devices would be returned to their owners, and not replaced with brand new models.

Until now, the location service I’ve used most often has been Foursquare. I have fun with it. But I’ve also found it frustrating in one major way which I believe Places will address–it’s often unclear just who people on Foursquare are.

Of all types of social networking, location-based stuff is the most personal. One of the cool things about Twitter is chatting with random smart people you don’t otherwise know. And even Facebook is full of social features that make sense even when you’re socializing with someone who’s not exactly a close personal friend. (I don’t need to know you very well to compete against you on the Bejeweled Blitz leaderboard.)

But my location? I don’t want to share it with anybody or everybody. It’s not that I’m paranoid about getting robbed–okay, maybe just a tiny bit–but mostly, I just don’t think there’s a worldwide audience for information on where I’m having lunch or the fact that I’ve decided to go to a museum. Friends might care. So might anyone who happens to be in the same place at the same time. But not everybody.

At the same time, there aren’t all that many people whose locations I care about. If I cant tell who you are, I don’t care where you are, unless you’re in the same place that I am. And maybe not even then.

So I like the idea of my location-based service buddies being people I do, indeed, know–or at least people whose identities are clear. But Foursquare makes it maddeningly difficult to accomplish that. I spend much of my Foursquare time trying to figure out who people are, and I fail more often than I succeed.

In fact, at the moment, I have several hundred Foursquare friend requests I haven’t accepted. 98% of them are from people whose names don’t sound familiar. (They may be people who follow me on Twitter, but it’s hard to tell, since I may not be following them back–and even if I am, their Twitter names may be different from their Foursquare ones.) And many of these requests are from people whose Foursquare handles consist of a first name only: Chris, Michele, Peter, Ralph, and Scott.

In some cases, I can figure out who the one-namers are by clicking through to their Facebook or Twitter profiles; in others, the only evidence of their true identity is a tiny avatar.

Even once I accept a friend on Foursquare, it doesn’t list their entire names–it calls them Meriwether M. or Adam J. or Kevin R. If you happen to know two Lauren Ts or David Hs, it’s pointlessly vague and confusing.

But one of the defining features of Facebook is that–assuming people follow the rules–it’s easy to figure out who they are. Full, real names are mandatory. And if you’ve carefully tended to your Facebook friends list, making Places useful should be a whole lot easier than building a parallel universe of acquaintances on Foursquare.

It’s nice to look at Facebook Places and be absolutely clear on just who it is whose locations I’m learning about:

(Almost all the people whose Place I can see are tech journalists or Facebook staffers–I assume that Facebook may have given them early access to the check-in feature…or they’re at least among the first to try it out.)

I’m not saying that Places is going to appeal to particularly privacy-conscious folks. Facebook provides a lot of control over who can see where you are, but privacy organizations are already complaining about some of the default settings. I predict more grumbling in the days to come, and I wouldn’t be stunned if Facebook tweaks the service further in response. (The fact that the default settings let other people check you in is especially odd.)

But I look forward to using a check-in service that never leaves me asking the question “Who the heck is Edgar, and do I know him?”