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
Davey Jones
April 20th, 2011
9:40 pm
Of course your phone can track you. Do you think every phone call made to a cell phone goes to every cell tower on the planet? Seriously, do you? When you go from one are to another your phone registers itself in the region you are entering. This is how the call and texts come to you. So, at the very least they know what cell you are in. Is there anything else? Sure there is. Many newer phones have built in GPS receivers. These not only allow location specific services, but also allow your phone to act as a GPS for you and it allows your phone to accurately report your location to 911 centers if you ever need to call 911 from your cell phone. Ok, so maybe you have an older phone, your safe right? No, you are not. The government requires cell providers to use location detection equipment to detect your phones location in case you need to call 911. So, in the end, what is going on? Well, generally, nobody really gives a …. about where you are or where you have been unless they have a need to know that information. So, most of this stuff is not gathered unless you create a need for the data to be collected. Yes though some companies will collect location information to use for marketing. This is why many applications ask if they can use your location information from your phone. If you say no then they generally don’t collect anything. Now, what apple is collecting here, is likely for marketing and is really underhanded. They should come clean and it should be an option you can opt out of. Of course, I would not trust Steve Jobs or Apple to safeguard this information or to gather it without including user information. The fact it stores this informatin in a file that is not encrypted shows they don’t give a …. about their users. After all, if this file really exists then anybody who wants to pull it off your phone can do so using a tiny procedure in an app. If this is not encrypted then any application you have could be spying on you.
Shadow7071
April 20th, 2011
9:51 pm
Class action suit for invasion of privacy.
Chappy
April 21st, 2011
1:45 am
People are acting surprised. This is not news. Federal law required ALL cellphones made after 2004 have these capabilities and are required to have gps devices. The only interesting item here is not that the iphone does it too, its just the people jailbroke the iphone and developed a program to see the info ALL cellphones capture.
There is no stopping the onslaught of devices that will control and track our lives. It is when you are REQUIRED to own one that you should be worried, but by then it will be too late. Its not machines its politicians that will be the monster.
layoff apple, its nothing new.
If You Value Your Privacy, Dump Your Iphone. Seriously. | Alternative News Report
April 21st, 2011
4:20 am
[...] Report: iPhones track users’ every move Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) - George Mathis - 7 hours ago A visualization of the location information captured on an iPhone, the author’s trip from DC to New York. 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 Watcher
April 21st, 2011
8:06 am
Epic 4G and all other Sprint Android phones track you too… check it out. They not only track your location, they track everything you do on the internet and every key you punch in email and text messaging.
Hoofty
April 21st, 2011
8:59 am
Sooo…
If you leave your phone at home, go commit a crime and come back, does your phone become your alibi then?
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January 14th, 2012
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