Orwellian iPhones Secretly Keeping Track of Where Owners Go, Unbeknownst to Owners… Data Could Be Used by Anyone Who Finds or Steals iPhone
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 21, 2011
Shades of Orwell's '1984': Apple iPhones keep secret files on where their users go
Don’t expect any privacy if you have an Apple iPhone. It’s been keeping track of where you go and you likely weren’t even aware of it. If your phone is lost or stolen, simple software can release the data, which can be used by anyone to track all your movements — burglars, private detectives, law enforcement, ex-spouses, international assassins, Muslim jihadists, the federal government — anyone.
George Orwell may very well be spinning in his grave. Again.
I’ve resisted getting a cell phone for many years, and it’s stories like these that affirm that my decision to not get one has been a wise choice. Congress wants answers on this secret tracking. This sure seems that Apple could be in violation of privacy laws.
From The Guardian, iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go:
Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.
“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, one of the researchers.
Only the iPhone records the user’s location in this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. “Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google's] Android phones and couldn’t find any,” said Warden. “We haven’t come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this.”
From PC Mag, A Reason to Distrust the iPhone: Secret Tracking:
I don’t know about you, but the fact that this feature exists on an iPhone is a deal-killer. I wouldn’t use such a device. It’s not that I care if someone knows where I’ve been. I just do not like the idea of being tracked like a dog. Apparently, the researchers did not find a similar program on an Android or other smartphones.
There appears to be no explanation for this feature, but I have a few guesses.
The obvious reason for this data is to reverse engineer individual patterns, so marketing snoops can make some determinations about how to sell us more junk. Are we in and out of cafe’s all day? Do we drive around a lot? It’s all good data.
The researchers did not discover that the phone is reporting the data to HQ, but I’m sure it’s doing it somehow.
Unlike the cell tower information that the police can access, this sort of information could be retrieved by anyone through accessing the PC or Mac where the info is transferred. Thus, patterns of behavior could be used to benefit robbers looking to burglarize your home, or kidnappers looking to grab someone. Not to get too grisly, but assassins would love access to this sort of thing. “Yes, he is always on Pine Road at 9 AM.”
Spouses could use the data to deconstruct suspicious movement, and your boss could use the data to show you have been consistently late to work on Tuesdays—by 10 minutes every day.
There is no end to the dubious usefulness of this sort of tracking information. And it could be argued that drug traffickers could be ferreted out, but few are dumb enough to use an iPhone in the first place. They use disposable cheapies.
From MSNBC:
Researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden developed an open source application, iPhone Tracker, to illustrate their findings. Msnbc.com reporter Rosa Golijan tested the app yesterday and found “an eerily accurate replay of my travels around my home.” Further, “the location markers get unnervingly close to some of my favorite haunts.” [See the detailed report, complete with maps, here.]
It’s not clear why Apple is recording this information, though the researchers believe Apple is doing it intentionally. Apple hasn’t released a public statement, nor has the company responded to reporter requests for comments.
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Glad I decided on a Blackberry…