Apple tracking users movments

[St4vr0s]

See Link:

BBC News - iPhone tracks users' movements

What are your thoughts on this?? Ive discussed with several people I work with and the thoughts are mixed, some seem not that bothered as this data can be gathered by police forces anyway while other are angry that it potentially means if your phone is stolen it is possible to get details about all aspects of your life by your movements???

Thoughts??

 

[Zepher]

If your phone is stolen, then you may be able to find out where it went.

 

[DrToxic]

Jailbreak your iphone, then "opt out".

 

[Luckystar]

Why am i not surprised.

And i will agree, yes it could be a way of finding you phone if stolen, if Apple even make easy to see this data but it could also be used by a phone thief to track down a person's home if someone knows how to rip this data from the phone.

Lose your iphone early in the day and come home to a empty house, hmm.. nice.

No thanks, another reason for me to stay clear of Apple.

Lucky

 

[Fayla]

Hence why I kept with my old (basic) Nokia phone. This is just another example of why smart phones are more trouble than they're worth :/

The more complex the phone, the easier it is to hide "features" like this.

See Link:

BBC News - iPhone tracks users' movements

What are your thoughts on this?? Ive discussed with several people I work with and the thoughts are mixed, some seem not that bothered as this data can be gathered by police forces anyway while other are angry that it potentially means if your phone is stolen it is possible to get details about all aspects of your life by your movements???

Thoughts??

 

[Luckystar]

Hence why I kept with my old (basic) Nokia phone. This is just another example of why smart phones are more trouble than they're worth :/

The more complex the phone, the easier it is to hide "features" like this.

See Link:

BBC News - iPhone tracks users' movements

What are your thoughts on this?? Ive discussed with several people I work with and the thoughts are mixed, some seem not that bothered as this data can be gathered by police forces anyway while other are angry that it potentially means if your phone is stolen it is possible to get details about all aspects of your life by your movements???

Thoughts??

This is true, but thats why you get a smartphone you can hack and rewrite, android for instance that way, you know exactly whats in your phone and what it does.

Lucky

 

[Fayla]

You know though, only the most tech savvy will ever do that. Big companies know this and embed hidden "features" for this exact reason, they even make their warranties forbid modification to stop those smarter users'. So even if you were tech-savvy, you'd be breaking the terms of your contract with your cellular provider by modifying your phone.

This line interested me the most: "...some seem not that bothered as this data can be gathered..."

While one piece of stored information about you may seem insignificant. Add it together with what search engines, your ISP, companies you rent from, web sites you use (facebook, myspace, such), advertisers, government, phone applications, cellular provider, et cetera know about you and your habits. Pull all of this information together and you end up with a rather uncomfortable image. Where does one draw the line and say "I want some control over my personal information?"

Hence why I kept with my old (basic) Nokia phone. This is just another example of why smart phones are more trouble than they're worth :/

The more complex the phone, the easier it is to hide "features" like this.

See Link:

BBC News - iPhone tracks users' movements

What are your thoughts on this?? Ive discussed with several people I work with and the thoughts are mixed, some seem not that bothered as this data can be gathered by police forces anyway while other are angry that it potentially means if your phone is stolen it is possible to get details about all aspects of your life by your movements???

Thoughts??

This is true, but thats why you get a smartphone you can hack and rewrite, android for instance that way, you know exactly whats in your phone and what it does.

Lucky

 

[George]

from techspot

​

 

[fireberd]

I got a new (Verizon) iPhone4 and after spending over two hours on the phone with Verizon tech support getting it activated and then downloading my backed up Verizon phone book the unit automatically took all my Outlook 2003 address book (including old deleted entries) and loaded them into the iPhone4. That I didn't want but the Verizon tech told me that was the way it worked and nothing I could do about it (more of Apple knows what I want). That was the end of the iPhone4 - I returned it and got a Samson "Fascinate" (Galaxy 5) Android and it works well.

 

[Airbot]

Apple CEO: iOS doesn't track your location, Android does!



You're holding it wrong.

 

[DeanP]

Turn off Location Services in settings and you should be fine.

 

[Airbot]

They say it records it even with that setting off.

 

[Thorsen]

If your phone is stolen, then you may be able to find out where it went.

silver lining? but doubtful. The position is kept on the device itself until uploaded.

When it is uploaded, it is assigned a random identifier and is mainly for apple to tell where ipads/phones are being used most and on what towers/cities/access points/etc.

Apple - Press Info - Apple Q&A on Location Data


lol not sure if you should believe this or not either due to this:

Apple: We'll fix iPhone tracking 'bug' | Signal Strength - CNET News

^^^^ for you as well DeanP

There is a service for your iphone to make it so you can track/turn off/disable a stolen iPhone:

6 Ways to Track and Recover Your Lost/Stolen iPhone - download ihound, download ilocalis, download mobile spy, download mobileme, find iphone, find lost iphone, find lost iphone free, find my iphone, find stolen iphone, iphone apps lost, iphone lost

Which I am sure is also tracking your phone for you these apps are actually features in this sense not a bug..

The biggest thing that concerns me and always makes me is apple doesn't think "oh we should probably encrypt this file or secure it somehow...."

hehe instead the file is unencrypted not secure at all... easily found and accessible and! it also is stored on your other Mac devices unencrypted and unsecure and easily accessible when its synced....

 

[Airbot]

They say they're going to fix it.

Apple Q&A on Location Data | Business Wire


Software Update
Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

• reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
• ceases backing up this cache, and
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.