In response to the recent furor over iOS keeping an unencrypted database of the device’s location on users phones and computers, Apple has published a Q&A about the issue, clarifying what the data is for, how it’s used, and some changes they’re going to be making in the next OS release.
Their first answer is direct:
1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.
Apple goes on to explain that the location data on the phone is not the location of the device itself, but rather a subset of their huge database of cell towers and WiFi networks which is used to pinpoint the devices location more quickly when requested, many of which are miles away from your actual location.
All location-aware mobile devices do something like this—if they actually fired up the GPS and waited for a lock before they used any location services, those services would be much less usable. Instead, they rely on crowd-sourced databases (their own, or from companies like Skyhook) to quickly get an approximate location, and then fine-tune it from there if needed using the phone’s hardware.
Apple admits that they are storing much more of this database than they need to, and calls that a bug. They say they’ll be reducing the cache to 7 days of data in the next release of iOS, and that they’re going to stop syncing the cache to your computer. They also promise that in the next major release of iOS, the cache on the phone will be encrypted.
This strikes me as a clear and most-likely-true response to the issue. Of course, people who hate Apple will claim it’s bullshit, they’re the most evil company EVAH, blah blah blah, but those people are not serious. It was clear early in this controversy that all other smartphone OSes do something similar to what Apple was doing, and there has never been any evidence that it was being used for any purpose other than to locate the phone during the course of regular use. The changes they’re going to make are good changes, and sound like legitimate bug fixes.
Speaking of tech, what the hell is wrong with slog?! Since yesterday, every time I try to reload the page it freezes intermittently and takes forever to load.
Very annoying.
@1 Yah me too. But only in Chrome. Works just fine in IE.
But I’m an American! I refuse to trust any facts and cling to my fears based in my ignorance of facts I refuse to acknowledge.
Nice try Apple, but your patent applications don’t lie
http://gawker.com/#!5795442/apple-patent…
@Justin, use the mobile page (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/mobile) and it it so much better.
I’d make a safe bet that the majority of people who are all hot and bothered about this are the same people who are mayor of their fucking Starbucks on 4Square.
If you want to talk about a tech company truly jeopardizing your privacy with out admitting it then look towards SONY, my friends. They had a privacy fail of EPIC proportions where about 60+m user account information was retrieved from their servers. Remember when you sign up for PSN you have to give your CC, your actual billing address, actual billing phone number, etc. The hack was SO BAD, the only option for Sony was to completely shut the system down and rebuild the fucker. (read that again). There are interesting theories about how it happened, but Sony has said little to explain what happened and gets very vague when it comes to your CC information being released.
I have no idea why this story hasn’t been on Slog…..
@4 I think Gawker shouldn’t be your source regarding an Apple story. They broke the law to get a “scoop” on Apple by thievery, so slander is kind of a step up.
@6 Except that they’re merely pointing out a patent application that Apple filed- whatever you think of Gawker, the fact that Apple filed the application (showing their intent to use this location data) is still crystal clear.
(And not to beat a dead horse into the ground, but that iPhone 4 scoop wasn’t thievery, seeing as they didn’t steal anything. At best, they bought stolen goods- but it should be pointed out that after they bought the phone from the person who originally found it, they sent it back to Apple.)
@4 But ignore those facts! @3 Has them all, and has come to a conclusion. We Americans are dumb!
Get one (1) fact that supports your gut feelings @3 and ignore the others – you are the example of the new American way my friend.
@4 – Companies file patent applications for pretty much any idea they think of. It may or may not have anything to do with their actual plans, and in any case, the data this story has been about is not the device’s location, it’s the location of nearby network nodes. The concepts in the patent application would require much more precise locations. iOS requests permission from users for each app that uses location services, and these *possible* future uses for location data would surely do the same.
Can Anthony continue to cover tech news from now on for the Slog? Pretty please with an iPad2 on top? (I will only collect your location at night to post in the forum)
Anthony, this data was collected whether users wanted location services enabled or not. It was also collected indefinitely and placed in a nondescript file on the users computer every time they synched it… I’m sorry, but all of that taken together is incredibly shady. As a proud mac owner, I can say I honestly love their products- but I cannot stomach being an apologist anytime Apple pulls more of their totalitarian crap.
This story has completely been sensationalized and what’s happening is that the average user is getting upset over a headline that is written explicitly for that reaction, not because it is true.
This is NOT some secret or “news” because it isn’t new. Christ on a cross, Politicians are even talking about it. Remember these politicians are also the ones allowing 40 FBI warrants issued into the SONY hack, but mum’s the fucking word on that right boys? Right, because the masses aren’t in a collective panty bunch over their private information like: cc#, phone#, and billing address being blatantly available for WHO knows how long. They also don’t give a shit about the company responsible for allowing this intrusion was silent as a fucking church mouse for about a week. Those bitches just want to get back to playing Call of Duty.
SENSATIONALIZATION! Now with even less truthiness!
@7 companies regularly file for patents on inventions they have absolutely no intention of using.
told ya.
Next time don’t believe Fnarf, he’s never worked for telecom companies or coded GIS systems like I have.
@2 my guess is HTML 5, which may be enabled on one browser, but network outages have been spotty in the region.
This is bullshit. Apple is the most evil company ever.
Had to be said. Otherwise, who would stuff your strawman?
The most interesting answer in the Q & A is the answer to question 7 which states that Apple have been tracking your location even when Location Services is turned OFF.
@17 except in airplane mode. that shuts down power to the devices.
If it logs your location, accurate within 50 meters, its tracking you.
Main difference between this and Android phones.
Android: Caches the last 50 entries, anonymizes the data and you have to opt in for this to occur. Opting out is as simple as turning off GPS in the settings (which deletes the file).
iPhone: Logs a years worth of data (which could be thousands of entries). Not encrypted and automatically uploads it to your computer when docked with iTunes (meaning a jealous boyfriend can attach a thumb drive to your mac and copy the file). Turning the specific feature off doesnt stop it from logging the data.
Im not going to say its good or bad, but whats clearly bad is that alot of people are clearly not aware that their phones do this. Whats really bad is Apple continue to blame its users, becuase the demographic that they target are people who are clueless when it comes to tech.
@19 “Whats really bad is Apple continue to blame its users, becuase the demographic that they target are people who are clueless when it comes to tech.”
And Anthony blames the media. Just like Palin.
Apple’s response seems honest enough overall, but the point I take issue with is Apple referring to it as a simple “bug.” It’s not a bug. It’s a programming oversight resulting in a massive breach of privacy. Maybe those are synonymous to Apple, but to me they’re pretty fucking different. Then again, it’s apparently too much to ask a corporation to properly own up to a fuckup of this magnitude.