Microsoft sued for location data collecting

First it was Apple that was being sued for location tracking, and it apparently was a bug that was in one of their iOS builds that caused the location data to be stored instead of removed. Since that is hardly an excuse, Apple got sued over that particular issue. Now it seems that Microsoft has landed themselves in hot water over something similar, this time with their Windows Phone 7 platform.

It seems that when the camera app in WP7 is launched, users are prompted whether they wish to have their location used. Whether it’s a bug or if it was done on purpose, it seems that selecting “No” will still result in having your location data collected.

They are now being sued for allegedly collecting this data for future use in a marketing system where ads are generated based on the user’s location. Given how low WP7 is being ranked compared to iOS and Android, do you think Microsoft can afford to have this lawsuit least it tarnishes their image?