You've been secretly iTracked!

Yeah, I saw a bunch of buzz about this and this story on it: Researcher: iPhone, iPad track users' whereabouts | The Digital Home - CNET News.

I also unfortunately only sync w/a PC and don't have a recent vintage Mac so I can't try the util. I found the timing of the release of all this very curious. Today was the day that Apple announced earnings. I think someone was trying to bang the stock down...

 

Interesting. I wonder if law enforcement can subpoena the phones when building cases against people.

 

Burritos - Absolutely.

 

Whether you mind being tracked or not, I don't understand how you could not mind that fact that the douchebags at Apple didn't tell you that you were being tracked.

 

I've said for years a cell phone is just a leash. Seems it's getting tighter. And shorter. No thanks.

 

Because your typical user gives this response: Wait, you mean they're tracking me with geo-what's-it-called? OOOHHHH SHINY NEW APP!!!!!!1!!1one! What were you talking about?

 

Every cell phone has a GPS thingy in it - your cell phone company uses it to "provide service", and for phone location, and it is also used every time you make an emergency call so that law enforcement can locate where the call came from.

This has been this way for several years now. And, yes, EVERY cell phone - not just your precious Apple products.

 

Someone once told me they didn't want a GPS receiver because they didn't want anyone tracking where they were. I asked them if they had a cellphone and they answered "Of course". :madgrin:

 

If you dont' think that any internet activity you do is not tracked for at least a year...then you're living in the stone age!!:thumb: Seriously, any unsecure site I use my generic username/password...regular mailing list. The only time I give away sensitive information is a secure connection in my own home. I suspect much of the info stored on this chip is similar to the basic info that is sent out from most people's PC/Mac that they don't know about. Things such as your computer configuration and username are a given to be freely accessed anytime you use the internet.

As for actually tracking GPS coordinates...I'm waitinf for the day that it's useful. I'm only cell phone based. My last phone, I lost somewhere while running. It supposedly could have been tracked if it was stolen...but since I lost it and couldn't "call" my service provider, they did not have any method for me to track it on the web. I guess it's their best interest to not have this service anyway...since it ment I had to buy a new phone pretty quickly in order to have a working line.

 

I find myself agreeing with Trebuchet, that can only mean one thing

 

Good explanation of what's actually happening:

3 Major Issues with the Latest iPhone Tracking “Discovery” | Alex Levinson

 

First off, Apple's been up front about this tracking from the beginning. check out section 4b of their SLA:
http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iphone.pdf

It clearly states location data can be tracked and stored as you use location services on the phone.

Further, you should be aware that most, if not all, GPS devices keep logs like these. It's part of the way they are designed. Among other things, those logs allow them to operate better - for example, since they know where you've been in the past, it's easier for them to figure out where you want to go next.

After seeing that article yesterday, I immediately downloaded the app and ran it... pretty cool. And, since I'm a software engineer and work with a bunch of software engineers, we took a friends Android phone and started snooping around... We found a very similar file! All the nay-sayers are just using this as an excuse for Apple bashing.

 

I don't have any i-stuff. An apple is a fruit.

 

There are two separate issues:

1. The phone knows where it is right now. Most phones do this so 911 will know where to send help.

2. Using the location data to record a log of where the phone has been and when it was there, and keeping this data on the phone, ready to share it with any computer that it's plugged into and that asks for it....for up to a year.

I don't commit crimes, so I'm not worried, nor do I plan to wrap my phone in aluminum foil. However, others might be concerned.

If 'your' phone is company property, then they can ask for it, and track your movements. It's their property. You can sue, but you'd lose.

If you still live with your parents, they can pull the tracking data too. It's only a matter of time until someone comes out with a mom and dad friendly program to pull this data and plot it on map. You know, for the safety of the kids...which always trumps everything else.

Any judge, anywhere can order you to surrender your phone so the data can be pulled. All it takes is a subpoena or court order.

Personally, I prefer the option to disable logging (tracking for 911 calls is ok), but no logging. It's called privacy...that means I don't need a reason.

 

you can disable logging... simply disable location services on the phone. As stated before, logging like this is a simple fact when dealing with any device that offers location services of some sort (like GPS devices). I mean seriously... how often have we seen on CSI or other shows cops pulling data from GPS devices in cars? If you're really that worried about what someone could see from this data, turn off location services, turn off your phone, or ditch your smart phone for a basic phone that can barely handle upgrading ringtones.

 

I think this should be a required function of every phone and GPS device. However, the data file that is kept must be circular (i.e. FIFO based on size or time) and must be encrypted so that only law enforcement can decrypt if needed, with court order, for investigation purposes.

It is a good optimization design to cache the cell tower Lat/Long data for Location Lookup purposes. But this data should not be available to anybody but the law, IMO.