Report: iPhones track users’ every move
Everyone loves their iPhone, and the super-popular device loves secretly tracking your location.
A visualization of the location information captured on an iPhone, the author's trip from DC to New York.
According to an article on the tech site O’Reilly Radar, the new Apple iOS 4 appears to log customer locations and timestamps to a file called “consolidated.db.”
The file exists on iPhones and the 3G iPad and is secretly copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronized.
Why? The paranoid probably have some good ideas, but Apple has not responded to the query of authors Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden.
The duo have produced a video and have written an application that lets users see the data the phone has gathered about their travels.
Potentially, the unencrypted information stored on your phone or computer could be subpoenaed and used by law enforcement agencies.
Or, as a commenter said on the O’Reilly site, it’s getting more difficult for criminals to have cool phones.
The Guardian newspaper has also reported on this.
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28 comments Add your comment
Monica
April 20th, 2011
5:29 pm
On the “glass is half full” side, if someone is missing, these records can be helpful in establishing a time line and pinpointing their last known location…or is that only on NCIS?
MrHughes
April 20th, 2011
5:31 pm
Uhhh… all cell phones do something very similar to this. They can track where you are based on which cell phone tower handles your calls. They can even track where you are when you are not making calls. That’s a way police track folks to catch them in lies. Not surprised that the phone actually does it for you.
Andrew
April 20th, 2011
5:40 pm
All cellphones track you. Even the simplest phone talks to a tower. The phone company keeps track of that data. This is how they place “criminals” “in the area”
Mike
April 20th, 2011
5:44 pm
Adobe “Flash” software, not a flash camera.
manuela
April 20th, 2011
5:46 pm
hopefully my vibrator does not keep track of how many times I use it
LimoManinGA
April 20th, 2011
6:15 pm
Just recently, it was very helpful to track down a criminal that stole a couples beach bag while vacationing in Florida. The victim went to his laptop at hotle room and had him nabbed in 15 minutes with the police following.
Monglorp
April 20th, 2011
6:36 pm
The app. shows where the hone has been not where the owner has been.
LimoManinGA
April 20th, 2011
6:49 pm
The phone was in the beach bag.
ATL Guy
April 20th, 2011
7:19 pm
My alibi….just in case.
jdee
April 20th, 2011
8:19 pm
Just another indicator of how we allow money and greed to cloud our best judgment. Everyone had to go out buy the Iphone. We Americans always want and have to have the latest and the so called greatest of technology. I’m sure you all have heard the big brother is watching scenario. All you Iphone users and owners just helped them do it and you are paying for it. Who’s the smart one? The phone or you?