![]() The absence of notice to users or any control option can only stem from an ignorance about privacy at the design stage.” ![]() “The existence of that data creates a real threat to privacy. Location is one of the most sensitive elements in anyone’s life – just think where people go in the evening,” said Simon Davies, director of a group called Privacy International. Privacy experts are up in arms over the existence of this secret tracking file. “The fact that it is transferred across when you migrate is evidence that the data-gathering isn’t accidental.” “Apple might have new features in mind that require a history of your location, but that’s our speculation,” Warden said. What Apple intended the file to do is up for speculation, but it is worrying that the file is transferred when you set up a new device. ![]() Warden and Allan have set up a website with a simple application that retrieves the information in the file and maps that data into an image of your movements. The file is recorded in both 3G enabled iPhones and iPads but the researchers did not find similar tracking in Android-powered phones. “Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden. Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan plan to present the discovery at a conference in San Francisco today, which is sure to raise some privacy concerns about what Apple does with the data collected. The tracking seems to have begun in June 2010 with the iPhone 4 update to the OS and the data is stored on the phone but is automatically transferred to a computer when the iPhone is synched without the user’s knowledge. But unfortunately the iPhone is also useful as a surveillance device for anyone with the technical savvy to retrieve a simple text file. The device is incredibly useful for browsing the web, playing Angry Birds, and occasionally making a telephone call if you can get service. Most people who have an iPhone always have it on them. ![]() Jobs simply says that Android also records user location data while intimating that Apple isn't tracking particular users, which while technically true, doesn't really address the issue people have with the tracking tool - that being it's existance and purpose in the first place.Researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone records timestamped GPS information in a secret file on every handset. So in typical Jobs fashion, there's not much to work with here. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. There's no question that Apple is gathering the data intentionally, and news of this subsequently prompted Senator Al Franken, and other politicians, to contact Apple and inquire why they were collecting the data and what it was being used for.Īpple has yet to issue an official statement on the matter, but Steve Jobs purportedly responded to an email from a MacRumors reader on the topic in the last few days.Ĭould you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Anybody with access to this file knows where you’ve been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released.Īgain, the file is a part of iOS 4 and subsequently affects the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad models. It can also be easily accessed on the device itself if it falls into the wrong hands. "What makes this issue worse," Allan and Warden wrote last week, "is that the file is unencrypted and unprotected, and it’s on any machine you’ve synched with your iOS device. Morover, there were valid concerns that the file itself was unencrypted. ![]() Apple last week was at the center of controversy following a report from researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden who wrote that iOS 4 maintains a file called consolidated.db that holds data points detailing a user's location via latitude and longitude coordinates accompanied with a timestamp.ĭespite the fact that the presence of the consolidated.db file wasn't new, and indeed has been used for months by law enforcement agencies during the course of forensic investigations, user concerns about privacy were naturally brought to the forefront as the file kept location data for months on end. ![]()
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