Apple Inc. and Google Inc. defended their privacy practices before Senate lawmakers Tuesday at a hearing on how the companies collect consumers’ location and other personal data through their smartphones.

“Apple is deeply committed to protecting the privacy of all our customers,” said Guy “Bud” Tribble, Apple’s vice president for software technology. He said Apple “does not track users information” and added that the company shares “the committee’s concerns about the collection and potential misuse of all customer data, particularly personal information.”

Lawmakers are concerned about reports that Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android smartphones have been gathering and transmitting subscribers’ location information to the companies and, more broadly, that some mobile applications routinely gather and share users location information.

“Who has our information and what are they doing with it?” said Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.), who chairs a new Senate Judiciary subcommittee focused on technology and privacy issues. “Our federal laws do far too little to protect this information.”

Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy, stressed that the company’s location-based services are optional. “We don’t collect any location information—any at all—through our location services on Android devices unless the user specifically chooses to share this information with Google,” he said.

In response to a question from Mr. Franken, neither executive committed to changing their respective company’s app stores to require third-party application providers to have clear privacy policies.

Mr. Davidson said he would forward the suggestion to Google’s leadership. Mr. Tribble said that such privacy disclosures might not be enough for consumers and information should be built into the apps themselves.

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