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#221996 - 04/20/11 04:19 PM Your iPhone tracks where you've been.
Am_Fear_Liath_Mor Offline
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Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13145562

Your iPhone will create a GPS tagged crumb trail, upload this file to your PC when you perform a sync and then transfer to your previous where abouts back to Apple Inc via your Internet connection. All without your knowledge or authority.

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#222005 - 04/20/11 05:45 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
moab Offline
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Registered: 11/30/07
Posts: 30
Loc: England
Just read that on the engadget site
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/20/researchers-find-ios-4-records-your-location-in-system-file-syn/

Why is it that these companies insist on "tracking" its users and then hide behind the "Terms & Conditions" ?

Not sure if this uploads in any sort of real time which could be useful for finding lost friends/family members etc

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#222117 - 04/22/11 02:53 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
Brangdon Offline
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Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nottingham, UK
Originally Posted By: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor
and then transfer to your previous where abouts back to Apple Inc via your Internet connection
Um, the linked article says "no suggestion that [Apple] has been uploading or using the information."

According to some reports, it is a cache of cell tower locations, used internally by the device either to speed up acquisition of GPS lock, or else provide location-based services in the absence of GPS. Storing the data on the device avoids network traffic, and incidentally gives Apple less information than if it asked their servers every time.

I'm not yet sure which reports to believe. A key question is whether it accumulates multiple entries per cell tower; some reports say it doesn't, and that new entries overwrite old ones. It does seem like the researchers who announced this and got the recent publicity, didn't do due diligence because it was already well-known. There have even been books published about it.

And it does sound like Apple don't have any sinister motivation. The data is on your phone and they don't get to see it. (It may still be a security risk, though.)
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#222129 - 04/22/11 03:49 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
comms Offline
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Registered: 07/23/08
Posts: 1502
Loc: Mesa, AZ
having read a few articles on this, I tend to lean towards the dumb luck crowd rather than nefarious black helicopter crowd. Apparently, from what I understand, it was created for (future) use on app advertising and now for mobile online searches. Whether this is an intended consequence or not, for the last few weeks (before the articles) I noticed that my iphone searches came back with more local reference than simply web based searches.
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#222138 - 04/22/11 05:13 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
7point82 Offline
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Registered: 11/24/05
Posts: 478
Loc: Orange Beach, AL
I understand that they need your coordinates to provide location based services and advertising but that doesn't explain why they would capture that data and store it long term on the device or transfer it back to your computer. It would probably be more efficient for the phone to close that file and start a new one periodically.

The article I read reported that the archive was being copied from your phone to your computer. This would seem to be pointless unless they want to use or sell that data later for whatever purpose they deem appropriate. The fact that the data isn't even encrypted just pushes the weird factor for me a bit.
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#222139 - 04/22/11 05:35 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: 7point82]
Am_Fear_Liath_Mor Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078
Perhaps Jobs has forgotten about this. or perhaps he hasn't wink

Maybe the bread crumb trail data is for the next Apple device called iRover. laugh



Edited by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor (04/22/11 05:48 PM)

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#222184 - 04/23/11 02:29 AM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
Art_in_FL Offline
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Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 2432

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#222216 - 04/24/11 03:16 AM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
bmisf Offline
Member

Registered: 03/19/03
Posts: 185
I assume the phone companies have been tracking this information since the dawn of cell phones; they only news about the iPhone is that data is in a file accessible on the device itself...

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#222509 - 04/29/11 06:42 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: 7point82]
Brangdon Offline
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Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nottingham, UK
Originally Posted By: 7point82
I understand that they need your coordinates to provide location based services and advertising but that doesn't explain why they would capture that data and store it long term on the device or transfer it back to your computer.
For performance. If the mapping from cell tower ID to location is stored locally on the phone, the phone can determine your location without needing a network transaction. It saves time, and power, and data costs, and works even when the network is not available. And it is actually better for privacy than continually talking to Apple's servers.

Microsoft's phones have a similar system, but they do talk to the servers each time. Android phones have a similar system, and they do have an on-phone cache, but they limit its size a bit better.

Quote:
It would probably be more efficient for the phone to close that file and start a new one periodically.
? It's a database.

Quote:
The article I read reported that the archive was being copied from your phone to your computer.
When Apple revamped their location services API, the database got moved into a more public folder (on the phone), and it happens to be one that the backup system includes. The backup system doesn't list each file that needs to be backed up, it takes everything below certain folders.

Quote:
This would seem to be pointless unless they want to use or sell that data later for whatever purpose they deem appropriate.
Copying the data from your phone to your computer doesn't enable them to sell it.

Quote:
The fact that the data isn't even encrypted just pushes the weird factor for me a bit.
It suggests they weren't thinking about privacy, or indeed trying to hide what they were doing.
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#222514 - 04/29/11 07:59 PM Re: Your iPhone tracks where you've been. [Re: Brangdon]
7point82 Offline
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Registered: 11/24/05
Posts: 478
Loc: Orange Beach, AL
Originally Posted By: Brangdon
[quote=7point82]
Quote:
This would seem to be pointless unless they want to use or sell that data later for whatever purpose they deem appropriate.


Copying the data from your phone to your computer doesn't enable them to sell it.


Unfortunately my confidence in a corporation to do the right thing by NOT doing something that is legal and worth money dwindles daily.

One case in point is TomTom selling speed data to police. I understand that TomTom could clean the data (if needed) in order to make it impossible to track back to an individual. I also suspect that a significant percentage of TomTom users are surprised that this data was even captured, let alone reported back to TomTom and eventually sold. I'm not part of the black helicopter crowd but it just doesn't seem like an honest way to do business in my old fashioned opinion. smile

http://www.pcworld.com/article/226527/TomTom_Caught_Selling_Speed_Data_to_Dutch_Police.html
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