"The existence of this information - stored in an unencrypted format - raises serious privacy concerns," Franken writes in his letter to Jobs.
"I am also concerned about reports that this sensitive location information may be maintained in an unencrypted format, making the information vulnerable to cyber thieves and other criminals", the Senator said.
Customer information, including location data, also was stored online in an unencrypted format, according to the agency — a state that can make the information easier for hackers to misuse.
The passwords and usernames are older and most probably dead and, most importantly, Burnett sourced them from websites that were "generally available to anyone and discoverable via search engines in a plaintext (unhashed and unencrypted) format and therefore already widely available to those with an intent to defraud or gained unauthorized access to computer systems".
EMI and other labels have already experimented with selling a handful of songs from artists like Norah Jones and Jessica Simpson in unencrypted MP3 format, which can be played on any computer or portable music player and can be copied freely.
JukeFly supports MP3s, iTunes unencrypted formats (AAC and Apple Lossless/m4a), and Ogg Vorbis.
That means the government can often see messages in unencrypted forms, even if sent from a BlackBerry.
The main security threat results from the fact that users' data, including passwords, travel in unencrypted, or clear' text packets across networks between computers.
The massive trove of credentials includes user names, which are typically email addresses, and passwords that in most cases are in unencrypted text.
These records were kept in unencrypted files on the phone and on whatever computer the phone was synced to -- leaving consumers unaware, and unprotected.
The fellows now in the Paris bombing had announced on the Internet publicly in unencrypted messages what they were about, and so forth.
