Apple: "We must Have Comprehensive Location Data" 556
An anonymous reader writes "Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4, and iPad models are keeping track of consumers whereabouts. Mac computers running Snow Leopard and even Windows computers running Safari 5 are being watched. But the question is why? 'To provide the high quality products and services that its customers demand, Apple must have access to the comprehensive location-based information,' Apple says."
rtfa (Score:2, Informative)
Old quote bolted onto new news.
"In June 2010, Congressmen Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas wrote a letter to Apple... ...In response the company's general counsel Bruce Sewall wrote a letter... ..."To provide the high quality products and services that its customers demand, Apple must have access to the comprehensive location-based information," Sewall told Congress in the letter."
Old news. (Score:5, Informative)
At least for those running OS-X (Score:4, Informative)
They actually come in groups of three, including iphone-wu.apple.com, location.apple.com or something of that ilk.
This is obviously much more of an issue on any iOS device, where the user has little to no control of what's taking place behind the fancy window dressing, and for which no such firewall is made available for purchase through Apple's app store that I know of.
Anyway, for a computer that's staying in one place, a case could be made for the lack of need to know it is staying there all the time. Butt off my activities unless you give me the opt-in choice to be the one that decides whether to provide your company with this information or not. In fact, it could be argued that for home computers the only use for this sort of stuff is targeted advertising somewhere down the road, once users have accepted the idea that being tracked is normal.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:4, Informative)
At least Apple buries the fact somewhere in some deep EULA (I guess). Google didn't ask anyone when it collected WIFI data, nor does it ask for permission when people use google's search engine (or 90% of the other sites on internet that have google analytics)
Well Hello there, Mr Double Standards Guy, Nice for you to drop by.....
Apple buries the fact >> Google Didn't ask permission? How are those even CLOSE to the same thing?
Let me fix it for you:
Apple Didn't Ask Permission. Google tells you right up Front.
Go to Google.com. Right there, mid screen is a Privacy link [google.com].
Click it and read. I'm astounded you've never seen this page before. Flabbergasted actually.
And were you TOTALLY UNAWARE that Google gives you all the tools you need to [google.com] CONTROL [google.com] what info they keep about you? I'm astounded.
And why is it suddenly about Google? Apple is the one leaving years worth of tracking data on the phones
and transmitting it secretly to headquarters with no way for you to opt out.
Re:Still no answer. (Score:0, Informative)
Because if Apple doesn't see and control everything their customers do, Jobs' weenie will never rise again!
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:4, Informative)
Riiiiight, because governments are rushing to validate the statements of irrelevant slashbots (myself very much included) by disappearing them?
Maybe not the disappearing part but other than that it's spot on. Remember the case in which the FBI put a GPS logger on a students car because of some harmless commet on a blog? Yes, that is actually what "they" do.
Also, remember the case of the hacked playstation in which Sony subpoenaed the identities of all commenters for a video? It's not only governments that go after mere commenters.
Paranoid tinfoil hat wearers can't come up with conspiracies fast enough to catch up with reality.
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:5, Informative)
Google has their privacy statement mid-page on the front page of their site.
Apple has it buried inside their EULA.
Stickin' with Google for this one.
(also, that streetview thing was an accident- Google didn't use any of the information. Heck, Google was the one that brought that problem to light- if they hadn't, we probably wouldn't have a clue.)
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:5, Informative)
Mistake != Malice.
Err, how do you accidentally collect WiFi packets on platform whose ostensible purpose is to take photographs, and transmit them back via some other means (3g most likely) entirely?
They were mapping out WiFi network locations to assist with location services. A terrestrial GPS-like system, if you will. The Street View team basically included an old experimental bit of code in their WiFi system which, unbeknownst to them, actually recorded from all categories of publicly-broadcast WiFi data. They only intended to record SSIDs and MAC addresses of access points. They had no payload data from encrypted WiFi networks (if you have a password on your network, it is encrypted) and they had absolutely no data at all from encrypted networks not broadcasting an SSID. They wanted to delete the data they recorded as soon as it was discovered, but that data was at that point recognized as evidence so deleting it would be very illegal. They were basically forced to hold onto it until authorization from authorities allowed them to rid themselves of it.
So now you understand the purpose of what they were doing and that they had made a mistake. Do you not agree that Mistake != Malice?
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not telling you anything, but the law tells companies: (http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/guide_e.cfm [priv.gc.ca]) which requires commercial entities to follow certain best practices in collecting information that may contain Personally Identifiable Information (including consent for the specific uses to which it is going to be put, retention, encryption, etc)
If you're doing business in Canada it is your responsibility to know this law and Google violated it. Its not about how easy it is to collect the information, it is about ensuring you have the legal authorization to do so. Just because you CAN do something does not make it legal to do so.
Min
Min
Re:fsck you apple, and google (Score:5, Informative)
From this data, you can get a rough estimate of when and where I have been. But the more often I visit an area and/or the longer I am there, the less precise in time the estimate becomes. Combine this with data points that can be 100 km off, and the position becomes untenable that this is a log of your whereabouts.
Apparently, Android logs the last 50 cells encountered *AND* sends this log to Google.
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:4, Informative)
get it running on the collection server
There does not appear to be one.
put some malicious code into these logs
How does that work, Macgyver?
This is not even wrong.
Re:So, who's the "customer"? (Score:4, Informative)
FUD (Score:5, Informative)
All location tracking in Android is totally optional, in fact you are explicitly asked if you want to enable it the first time you turn on your phone, there is no way to even skip the question.