Apple Logging Locations of All iPhone Users 591
An anonymous reader writes "The Guardian reports that researchers have found a hidden file on all iPhones, iPads and any computers to which they synchronize, logging timestamped latitude and longitude coordinates of the user since June 2010. A tool is available on their website to check on your own."
Much worse than Google's WiFi tracking (Score:5, Insightful)
Tracking people's whereabouts is truly evil. Wait until the divorce lawyers start subpoena them for location data to help their clients.
Re:I wonder which government (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really need to invoke a government conspiracy? This is Apple we're talking about.
Re:Gotta love it... (Score:4, Insightful)
Look again. There is no link to upload anything only a link to download the application.
Mac fanboys (Score:0, Insightful)
Can't wait to see how the fanboys rationalize this one.
What the FUCK, Apple? (Score:3, Insightful)
What good reason could they have for pulling something like this? I know, I know, I'm not thinking creatively and/or cynically enough. Give the caffeine an hour or so.
This is why I'm quite happy with my N900. No carrier lockability, no Big Brother bullshit, and it's a better phone to boot. As the longtime owner of two Power Macs and a 4G iPod (you know, the kind that can run RockBox, that alternative firmware that you guys hate so much) I feel compelled to tell you, Apple, to get bent.
we're sooo fucked (Score:3, Insightful)
Still surprises me how everybody accepts that kind of cryptototalitarian shit while saying while saying "OMG SHINY APPS!!!". Next thing you know, the economy is down for good, the chinese take over, then nobody cant say crap while they get painfully raped up their sociopolitical collectives arses. Fascism? There's an app for that!
So my phone tracks itself, big deal (Score:5, Insightful)
I assure you all that if someone were to do that, I'd have a lot more to worry about than my PC or phone giving up my travel habits.
Evil? Really? (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's put away the hyperbole before the language no longer means anything, K?
Apple is not logging. Your phone is logging. (Score:2, Insightful)
The phone logs the data for some reason.
This is then backed up when the phone is backed up.
It is never sent to Apple.
Really.
I mean, there are millions of things on the iPhone that checks your position. It gets embedded in photos. It gets uploaded to somewhere whenever you start the App you use to order pizza or check phone-directory.
Also, if Apple wanted to find you they would just send a "find my iPhone" ping to the phone.
This is a local list saved to the phone only (and then backed up).
It would be nice to know why it is there, but it does not really worry or surprise me.
Re:The data is on your phone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What the FUCK, Apple? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What the FUCK, Apple? (Score:4, Insightful)
Likewise with my Nexus S. I know it tracks itself, because I have joined Latitude and keep my GPS turned on, but I can opt out of Latitude and disable the GPS, so it can't track itself. And at least I own that device, unlike the iStuff, which I apparently only lease from Apple...
Find Your iPhone (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple has a service that allows you to find a lost or stolen iPhone. Presumably, the phone logs its position so it can upload it when asked. Nothing scary here, though the fact this data is available means people will try and extract it. My guess is that the next iOS release will wipe this data every seven days or so.
Re:So my phone tracks itself, big deal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Phone is tracking, Apple is not. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Evil? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are varying degrees of many things, of which many subsets can be constructed.
Apple is a Tier-2 evil. They are more evil than the neighborhood bully, but they are less evil than...say, Hitler.
Just like evil, there are subsets of happy.
Think about "I just got an 'attaboy' from my boss" happy versus "I just got with this super-hot girl I've been into for a long time" happy.
Re:ummm (Score:1, Insightful)
1) no evidence location is tracked when you turn off location services (unlikely)
2) no evidence the file is leaving your phone (or its encrypted backups on your pc), you need to jailbreak the physical device it to obtain it
3) you could get the same kind of information by looking at geotagged pictures people upload absolutely everywhere.
The headline gives the impression the phone is phoning home this info to Apple, this is NOT stated in the article. My impression is that it is a cache file which they fail to clean.
Re:ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Phone is tracking, Apple is not. (Score:3, Insightful)
Prove it.
Re:Can we start using examples other than Divorce? (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's try to come up with better examples that make people actually care please?
Oh wait I've got a fun one... The only legal people that matter in the USA anymore are corporations, so ... What is the legal liability to a company that tracks the location of all its employees and then knowingly does nothing with the knowledge of the employee being in an illegal location? Perhaps he's only got a S clearance or entirely uncleared, yet here is proof of him walking around in the TS offices and warehouses... If the company does absolutely nothing with its proof of illegal activity, and later the guy gets caught (camera, whatever) then exactly how liable is the company or its agents as a co-conspirator?
Re:I wonder which government (Score:2, Insightful)
Exactly. They didn't add it on request of any government: they added it first and then shopped it around for favors. I wonder if Jobs presented it as "one more thing..." when asking for patent favors from the US or extra security around the factories from the Chinese.
Re:What the FUCK, Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Mac fanboys (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Phone is tracking, Apple is not. (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty sure the onus is on those who assert that Apple is tracking you. As the ARTICLE stated, there is no evidence that Apple is receiving this information.
So yeah, prove that they are.
Re:Mac fanboys (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually come to think of it, it's the CARRIERS that benefit from this data, not Apple. It's not storing your GPS location ... just the location of the cell towers you've hit. So it's giving, essentially, a map of network load caused by your phone. Aggregated with other phones, this would be pretty interesting information to a carrier, you'd think. Perhaps carriers wanted Apple to do this kind of logging? But again, since the data isn't sent to anyone, it's still hard to see how this could be useful for anything other than a legitimate reason related to the phone itself (e.g. caching your previous locations so that it can more quickly use AGPS to pinpoint you again).
Nice logic. Except that the carriers already know with great precision where you've been anyway. They run the towers you connect to, remember?
Re:ummm (Score:4, Insightful)
It's closed source, so how do you know it's not continuing to collect data, even if that collection isn't made visible to the user? How do you know that the file in question is a result of the location services which can be turned off?
According to Apple [apple.com], "Location Services is on by default, but you can turn it off if you don't want to use this feature or to conserve battery life. You can also individually control which applications have access to Location Services data." Which application do you turn off to prevent this file from being created/updated? Additionally, Apple says "Location Services allows applications such as Maps, Camera, and Compass
Re:ummm (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody knows for sure, but judging from the evidence presented and the circumstances surrounding them, a clear verdict should be possible.
A cached database of location points is only created for a reason, especially when it's done on a mobile device, using scarce CPU cycles and even scarcer battery power to do it. The GPS receiver and CPU consume quite a bit of power, which is the most precious resource on a smartphone. Switching on the main radio for triangulating its position when GPS is unavailable is even worse, considering it is then usually triggered inside buildings, where the main radio has to ramp up transmit power to get to their cell tower.
Fine-grained tracks recorded when no application is actively requesting them?
An uncalled-for but constant drain on the most precious resource and deciding factor of a smartphone - its battery?
Neat position databases with no discernible limits in length, just for a cache?
Large amounts of data synchronized to a new phone via the owner's synced computer, by accident?
All this effort for a database that until now wasn't documented, unused and unavailable to any existing app in the entire app store, for a legitimate reason?
All cheaters usually exclaim even when caught red-handed "It's not what you think, it's not what it seems, there's a good explanation for it."
But all things considered, this is a textbook example of "if it quacks like a duck". And Apple cheated on this one. Face it and show them the door.
Re:ummm (Score:2, Insightful)
So I see you suspect malice over incompetence, but you failed to provide the main proof for malice: The motive. Why would Apple do such a thing? What do they have to gain by letting a trail like this on all phones?